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indicates a dweller in the coldest climates, yet its southward distribution in winter is very 

 extensive — more so than would have been anticipated. It reaches considerably lower latitudes 

 than its near relative the Hawk Owl ever descends to ; and I am inclined to think, from what I 

 have read npon the subject, that its range in winter, in the United States, is decidedly beyond 

 the parallel of latitude it is known to reach in Europe. You are certainly prepared for these 

 statements after your own encounter with the Snowy Owl at San Antonio, in Texas, and after 

 its well-known quotation from Bermuda by Sir William Jardine. I have it down in my South- 

 Carolina list (Proc. Bost.. Soc. Nat. Hist. xii. 1868, p. 120) on the authority of Professor R. W. 

 Gibbs, who, however, went to Audubon for his. But, without multiplying references, in this 

 case quite unnecessary, I may simply say that we have advices of this bird from almost every 

 State in the Union — the only notable exceptions being those of the extreme southern frontier 

 and California. It is, indeed, given in Cooper's late work on the ornithology of this last-named 

 State, but, as in the instance of the Hawk Owl and many others, upon a presumption of its 

 occurrence. It is singular that we have no account of the species from the territories west of 

 the Mississippi, especially from Washington and Oregon, where one would think it must certainly 

 occur. But such appears to be the case, and is only explicable upon two theories : one is, that 

 at the season of the year when the explorations of that wild country are almost necessarily 

 undertaken, the bird is in its northern home ; the other, that the species usually comes further 

 south, and in greater numbers, along the Atlantic States than in the west. I am myself inclined 

 to give weight to the latter supposition, though it rests as yet upon negative evidence. In New 

 England, and thence into the Middle Atlantic States, the Snowy Owl may sometimes be called a 

 common bird in winter. Thus in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, Mr. Cassin says, it is 

 sometimes so numerous that specimens sell in the market for a mere trifle. But, like other 

 wanderers from the far north, as the vagrant hordes of Waxwings, Longspurs, Crossbills, &c, its 

 appearance is so irregular that evidently we have here another case of a forced flank movement, 

 like that of the Hawk Owl, dependent upon vicissitudes of the weather and a precarious state 

 of the larder. It is pretty certain that the movement is not a true periodic migration, moreover, 

 from the accounts that reach us of the bird's remaining in the higher latitudes the year round. 

 Thus Mr. Dall has lately reported that he saw it flying over the frozen Yukon in midwinter 

 (Trans. Chicago Acad. i. p. 273). When it does visit us, the chances are largely against its ever 

 seeing home again ; for by a sort of fatality it seems to be led into thickly settled districts, and 

 of all the larger birds has the most unfortunate knack of getting into towns, when its size and 

 colour render concealment impossible ; and who could refrain from a fair shot at a Snowy Owl "? 

 In New England the standard winter quotations of this bird are in some instances enlarged to 

 include other months of the year. Mr. Allen writes to this effect in his Massachusetts List 

 (Proc. Essex Inst. iv. 1864, p. 97): — 'A specimen of the Snowy Owl,' he says, 'was taken in 

 Springfield, the present year, about May 20th. Another instance of its capture here late in May 

 has occurred within a few years. It has been found here repeatedly in November, and conse- 

 quently spends at least half the year here.' Now the month of May, as you know, is well into 

 the breeding-season of Strigidce ; and although Mr. Allen is prudently silent in the matter, yet 

 he says enough to make us expect something from Maine advices. Nor are we at fault; 

 Mr. G. A. Boardman makes this entry in the Boston Society's Proceedings (vol. ix. p. 123), from 



