SNOW OWL. 4j 



SNOW OWL. (Strix nyctea.) 



PLATE XXXII.— Fig. 1. Male. 



Lath. i. 132. No. 17.— Buff. i. 387.— Great White Owl, Edw. 61.— Snowy Owl, 

 Arct. Zool. 233. No. 121.— Peale's Museum, No. 458. 



SURNIA NYCTEA.— Dumeeil. 



Snowy Owl, Mont. Orn. Diet. Supp. — Bewick's Brit. Birds, Supp. — Snowy Owl, 

 Strix nyctea, Selby's Brit. Orn. p. 58, pi. 23. — Strix nyctea, Temm. Man. i. 

 p. 82. — Flem. Br. Anim. p. 5S. — Bonap. Synop. p. 36. — North. Zool. ii. p. 88. 



The snow owl represented in the plate is reduced to half its 

 natural size. To preserve the apparent magnitude, the other 

 accompanying figures are drawn by the same scale. 



This great northern hunter inhabits the coldest and most 

 dreary regions of the northern hemisphere on both continents. 

 The forlorn mountains of Greenland, covered with eternal 

 ice and snows, where, for nearly half the year, the silence of 

 death and desolation might almost be expected to reign, 

 furnish food and shelter to this hardy adventurer ; whence 

 he is only driven by the extreme severity of weather towards 

 the sea-shore. He is found in Lapland, Norway, and the 

 country near Hudson's Bay, during the whole year ; is said to 

 be common in Siberia, and numerous in Kamtschatka, He is 

 often seen in Canada and the northern districts of the United 

 States ; and sometimes extends his visits to the borders of 

 Florida. Nature, ever provident, has so effectually secured 

 this bird from the attacks of cold, that not even a point is left 

 exposed. The bill is almost completely hid among a mass of 

 feathers that cover the face ; the legs are clothed with such 

 an exuberance of long, thick, hair-like plumage, as to appear 

 nearly as large as those of a middle-sized dog, nothing being 

 visible but the claws, which are large, black, much hooked, 

 and extremely sharp. The whole plumage below the surface 

 is of the most exquisitely soft, warm, and elastic kind, and so 

 closely matted together as to make it a difficult matter to 

 penetrate to the skin. 



