THE SNCWY OWT. 261 
between the eye and the base of the beak are hlack. The legs, toes, and cere 
are yellow, the claws black, and the beak nearly black, with a bluish 
tinge. The length of the male bird is about eighteen inches. 
The female is a much darker bird, the back and upper portions being of a 
deep dusky brown, and the primaries being but a little darker than the 
plumage of the back. The feathers of the under parts are lighter brown, 
with pale margins, so as to present a kind of mottled buff and chestnut 
aspect ; the upper surface of the tail is marked with partial dark bands, and 
its under surface is very distinctly bound with broad bands of black and 
greyish white. The funnel-shaped depression round the eyes, technically 
called the concha, or shell, is brown towards the base of the feathers, but 
merges into a white eyebrow above, reaching to the cere. Her length is 
about two inches more than that of the male, and her spread of wing is about 
three feet six inches. 
OWLS. 
THERE are few groups of birds which are so decidedly marked as the OWLs, 
and so easy of recognition. The round, puffy head, the little hooked beak 
just appearing from the downy plumage with which it is surrounded, the 
large, soft, blinking eyes, and the curious disk of feathers which radiate froin 
the eye, and form a funnel-shaped depression, are such characteristic distinc- 
tions, that an Owl, even of 
the least owl-like aspect, 
can at once be detected and 
referred to its proper place 
in the animal kingdom. 
These birds are, almost 
without an exception, noc- 
turnal in their habits, and 
are fitted for their peculiar 
life by’ a most wonderfully 
adapted form and structure. 
The eyes are made so as to 
take in every ray of light, 
and are so sensitive to its in- 
fluence that they are unable 
to endure the glare of day- 
light, being formed expressly 
for the dim light of evening or 
earliest dawn. An ordinary 
Owl of almost any species, 
when brought into the full 
light of day, becomes quite 
bewildered with the unwont- 
ed glare, and sits blinking 
uncomfortably, in a pitiable 
manner. i THE SNOWY OWL.—(Wyctea nivea.) 
The SNowy OWL is one 
of the handsomest of this group, not so much on account of its dimen- 
sions, which are not very considerable, but by reason of the beautiful white 
mantle with which it is clothed, and the large orange eyeballs. 
This bird is properly a native of the north of Europe and America, but 
has also a few domains in the more northern parts of England, being 
constantly seen, though rather a scarce bird, in the Shetland and Orkney 
