298 SNOW OWL. 
In the month of October, I met with this bird on Oswego ‘River, 
New York state, a little below the Falls, vigilantly watching for fish. 
At Pittsburg, in the month of February, I saw another, which had 
been shot in the wing some time before. Ata place on the Ohio 
called Long Reach, i examined another, which was the first ever 
recollected to have been seen there. In the town of Cincinnati, state 
of Ohio, twe of these birds alighted on the roof of the court-house, and 
alarmed the whole town. A people more disposed to superstition 
would have deduced some dire or fortunate prognostication from their 
selecting such a place ; but the only solicitude was how to get pos- 
session of them, which, after several volleys, was at length effected. 
One of these, a female, I afterwards examined, when on my way 
through that place to New Orleans. Near Bairdstown, in Kentucky, 
I met with a large and very beautiful one, which appeared to be alto- 
gether unknown to the inhabitants of that quarter, and excited general 
surprise. A person living on the eastern shore of Maryland shot one 
of these birds, a few months ago, a female; and, having stuffed the 
skin, brought it to Philadelphia, to Mr. Peale, in expectation, no doubt, 
of a great reward. I have examined eleven of these birds, within 
these fifteen months last past, in different and very distant parts of the 
country, all of which were shot either during winter, late in the fall, or 
early in spring ; so that it does not appear certain whether any remain 
during summer within the territory of the United States; though I 
think it highly probable that a few do, in some of the more northern 
inland parts, where they are most numerous during winter. 
The color of this bird is well suited for concealment, while roaming 
over the general waste of snows ; and its flight strong and swift, very 
similar to that of some of our large Hawks. Its hearing must be ex- 
quisite, if we judge from the largeness of these organs in it; and its 
voice is so dismal that, as Pennant observes, it adds horror even to the 
regions of Greenland by its hideous cries, resembling those of a man 
in deep distress. : 
The male of this species measures twenty-two inches and a half in 
length, and four feet six inches in breadth; head and neck, nearly 
white, with a few small dots of dull brown interspersed ; eyes, deep 
sunk under projecting eyebrows, the plumage at their internal angles 
fluted or pressed in, to admit direct vision ; below this, it bristles up, 
covering nearly the whole bill; the irides are of the most brilliant 
golden yellow, and the countc~ance, from the proportionate smallness 
of the head, projection of the eyebrow, and concavity of the plumage 
at the angle of the eye, very different from that of any other of the 
genus ; general color of the body, white, marked with lunated spots of 
“Probably it may not be generally known to naturalists that the Common Brown 
Owl (Strix stridula) is in the habit, occasionally, at least, of feeding its young with 
live fish —a fact which I have ascertained beyond doubt. Some years since, sev- 
eral young Owls were taken from the nest, and placed in a yew-tree, in the rectory 
garden here. In this situation, the parent birds repeatedly brought them live fish, 
bull-heads, (Cottus gobbius,) and loach, (Cobitis barbatule,) which had doubtless 
been procured from a neighboring brook, in which these species abound. Since the 
above period, I have, upon more than one occasion, found the same fish, either 
whole or in fragments, ne under the trees on which I have observed the young 
Owls to perch after they have left the nest, and where the old birds were accus- 
tomed to feed them.” — Ep. 
