100 STRIGID^E. 



ing oa the body just before the carpal joint of the wing. The supposed fema les 

 which are much larger than the last mentioned, differ exceedingly from it in mark- 

 ings. They have the facial plumage, or that within the disk, the throat, body beneath 

 the wings, under surface of the latter, the legs and toes, pure white. The head to the 

 disk posteriorly, back, upper side of wings, and whole plumage between the folded 

 wings, present as much of a blackish-brown colour as of white, the former being 

 disposed in the same manner as described in the specimen from Scrabo ; but the 

 bars and other dark markings are so broad as to occupy equal space with the white or 

 "ground" colour. 



As immature, and more especially young birds of the year, 

 often wander farther from their native domicile, than those which 

 have attained maturity, it hitherto appeared singular to me, 

 that none of the specimens of the snowy owl obtained in so 

 southern a limit of their flight as England and Ireland, should be 

 in the garb described as assumed previous to the first moult. The 

 plumage of these Labrador birds, however, satisfied me, that the 

 young of the snowy owl, like the immature individuals of many 

 other species, do scatter themselves more widely than the adults. 



The bird shot at Scrabo was, I have no doubt, a nestling in the 

 summer of 1837. The individual figured by Mr. Selby* is also 

 less white than Mr. Langtry's male bird, and if belonging to the 

 same sex, I should consider it a bird of the first year. Of two 

 other individuals, male and female, recorded by Mr. Selby to have 

 been killed in Northumberland, in 1823, the latter was, from the 

 number of black bars and spots, considered by that gentleman to 

 be a young bird, but no opinion on the age of the male is offered ; 

 he is, however, stated to have been much whiter than the female, 

 a circumstance which, as we have seen, does not militate against 

 his also being a young bird of the year. Of the other specimens 

 killed in England, I have not seen such detailed descriptions as 

 enable me to judge of their age from comparison with the Labra- 

 dor birds ; nor, in consequence of its sex being unknown, can a 

 satisfactory opinion be offered on the first snowy owl recorded to 

 have been obtained in Ireland. (Zool. Proc. 1835, p. 78.) "Were 

 the sex of the individuals known, we should probably find that the 



* 111. Brit. Oru. pi. 23. 

 f See Naturalist's Library : Brit. Birds, Part I. p. 307. 



