A BIRD OF THE ARCTIC WASTES 49 



The Great Horned Owl, or Hoot Owl, as it is frequently 

 called, is a bird of dignified and imposing appearance. Its 

 big, round-topped horns of feathers are singularly like cats' 

 ears in shape, and when with these are seen the fiercely glaring 

 eyes of yellow and black, the half-yellow face and fluffy white 

 feathers on the throat, the whole head of this bird is singularly 

 like that of a Bengal tiger. The body pluihage is a complex 

 mottling and barring of black and brown, dull yellow and 

 white, impossible to describe successfully. 



But this bird can always be recognized by its large size, 

 cat's-ear "horns," and the fine, black horizontal bars across 

 its breast-feathers. From wing to wing, across its upper 

 breast there is an assemblage of heavy splashes of black. 



The eastern Great Horned Owl is the type species on 

 which are based the Western, Arctic, Dusky and Pacific Horned 

 Owls, which in combination cover practically the whole of 

 North America down to Costa Rica. By reason of the live 

 food available in winter, these birds are not migratory. 



The Snowy Owl^ is a bird of the Arctic wastes, and 

 reaches the northern United States only as a winter visitor. 

 Its occurrence with us varies from a total scarcity during 

 some years to an abundance during others. During Decem- 

 ber, 1886 — the beginning of the awful winter which killed 

 over ninety per cent of the range cattle in Montana — we saw 

 in the country in which we were hunting buffalo, in central 

 Montana* at least twenty-five Snowy Owls. They were living 

 on hares, rabbits and sage grouse, out in the open, twenty 

 miles from the nearest timber. It was their habit to alight 



1 Nyc'te-a nyc'te-a. Average length, about 23 inches, the female being larger 

 than the male. 



