Snowy Visitors. 1 7 y 



beneath had been waked by the sound, or startled 

 into turning his head. With the first movement the 

 owl had him. 



All owls have the habit of sitting still upon some 

 high point which harmonizes with the general color 

 of their feathers, and swooping upon any sound or 

 movement that indicates o-ame. The lonQ;-eared, or 

 eagle-owl invariably selects a dark colored stub, on 

 top of which he appears as a part of the tree itself, 

 and is seldom noticed; while the snowy owl, whose 

 general color is soft gray, will search out a birch or 

 a lightning-blasted stump, and sitting up still and 

 straight, so hide himself in plain sight that it takes 

 a good eye to find him. 



The swooping habit leads them into queer mistakes 

 sometimes. Two or three times, when sitting or 

 lying still in the woods watching for birds, my head 

 has been mistaken for a rat or squirrel, or some 

 other furry quadruped, by owls, which swooped and 

 brushed me with their wings, and once left the marks 

 of their claws, before discovering their mistake. 



Should any boy reader ever have the good fortune 

 to discover one of these rare birds some winter day 

 in tramping along the beaches, and wish to secure 

 him as a specimen, let him not count on the old idea 

 that an owl cannot see in the daytime. On the con- 

 trary, let him proceed exactly as he would in stalking 



