50 



SNOW OWL. 



dashes below ; femoral feathers, long, and legs covered, even 

 over the claws, with long shaggy hair-like down, of a dirty- 

 white ; the claws, when exposed, appear large, much hooked, 

 of a black colour, and extremely sharp pointed ; back, white ; 

 tail, rounded at the end, white, slightly dotted with pale 

 brown near the tips ; wings, when closed, reach near the 

 extremity of the tail ; vent-feathers, large, strong shafted, 

 and extending also to the point of the tail ; upper part of the 

 breast and belly, plain white ; body, very broad and flat. 



The female, which measures two feet in length, and five 

 feet two inches in extent, is covered more thickly with spots 

 of a much darker colour than those on the male; the chin, 

 throat, face, belly, and vent, are white ; femoral feathers, 

 white, long, and shaggy, marked with a few heart-shaped 

 spots of brown ; legs, also covered to the claws with long white 

 hairy down ; rest of the plumage white, every feather spotted 

 or barred with dark brown, largest on the wing-quills, where 

 they are about two inches apart ; fore part of the crown, 

 thickly marked with roundish black spots ; tail, crossed with 

 bands of broad brownish spots ; shafts of all the plumage, 

 white ; bill and claws, as in the male, black ; third and 

 fourth wing-quill the longest ; span of the foot, four inches. 



From the various individuals of these birds which I have 

 examined, I have reason to believe that the male alone 

 approaches nearly to white in his plumage, the female rarely 

 or never. The bird from which the figure in the plate was 

 drawn, was killed at Egg Harbour, New Jersey, in the montli 

 of December. The conformation of the eye of this bird forms 

 a curious and interesting subject to the young anatomist. 

 The globe of the eye is immoveably fixed in its socket, by a 

 strong elastic hard cartilaginous case, in form of a truncated 

 cone ; this case being closely covered with a skin, appears at 

 first to be of one continued piece ; but, on removing the 

 exterior membrane, it is found to be formed of fifteen pieces, 

 placed like the staves of a cask, overlapping a little at the 

 base, or narrow end, and seem as if capable of being enlarged 



