SCARLET TANAGER-SNOW OWL-SNOW BUNTING. 



11 



when visiting the orchards. Its nest is usually in a dry old tree, 

 or in a large fallen branch, the entrance to which is small for the 

 size of the bird, and passing down in a slanting direction it expands 

 toward the place where the eggs lay, which are from three to four 

 in number and of a pure white color. Nests containing eggs are 

 invariably to be found from about the middle of May to the first of 

 June. This bird is met with almost everywhere, but not in 

 great numbers, from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Its 

 food, like that of all the Woodpeckers, consists chiefly of insects 

 and their larvae, and to some extent of berries. 



The Scarlet Tanager. {Pyranga rubra.) 



Fig. 5- 



This beautiful bird is an ornament to our woods. It is almost 

 destitute of song, being endowed with a few notes only, which re- 

 semble those of the Baltimore Oreole. It may be found in all parts 

 of the United States, even as far up north as Canada. It rarely 

 visits the habitations of man, but frequently orchards, where it 

 sometimes settles down on an apple or pear tree. Its nest, which 

 it builds in the middle of May, on a horizontal branch, consists of 

 stalks of broken flax and other dry fibrous matter loosely woven 

 together. The eggs, three or four in number, are of a dull bluish 

 color, spotted with brownish purple. 



It seems not to be very shy, but allows you to approach it very 

 near, and is frequently sitting right above your head while you are 

 looking for it in the distance, misled by its notes, " chip, cheer," 

 which seem to come from a great distance. 



The female is green above and yellow below ; the wings and tail 

 brownish black, edged with green. The male has a spring and a 

 summer dress. Our plate shows him in the spring dress. This 

 changes, soon after the young are hatched, into one similar to that 

 of the female — green above and yellow below ; and in the time 

 between this and his bridal dress, he is often speckled with red, 

 which is produced by the red points of the feathers : for, with the 

 exception of the points, these feathers are of a bluish and some- 

 times a yellowish white ; but they lie so regularly on the living 

 bird that the white parts are invisible. 



PLATE X. 

 The Snow Owl. {Nyctea nivea.) 



Fig. I. 



The Snow Owl, the largest of all the so-called Day Owls, inhabits 

 all parts of the North. However near men have approached to the 

 pole, they have seen this Owl, not only on the land, but they have 

 observed him likewise sitting on icebergs, or flying close over the 

 water with powerful flapping of the wings. It is, therefore, proba- 

 ble that they inhabit not only the whole of North America, but also 

 the corresponding latitudes of Europe and Asia. 



In extremely cold winters they regularly wander southward, and 

 are by no means scarce in Illinois. Several of them were shot near 

 Chicago, in the winter of 1871-72. Our drawing was prepared 

 from a beautiful female specimen. 



A gentlemen from Cuba assures us that he has frequently seen 

 this Owl there. 



Some ornithologists of Europe hold that the color and markings 

 of this species are different at different ages, and that some are 

 like the one on our plate, while others are almost or perfectly white. 

 It may be so ; but on dissection the white ones have been invaria- 

 bly found to be males and the others to be females. The white 

 Owls are the smaller. 



During the summer they generally keep in the mountainous part 



of the North ; in winter they take up their abode in the plains. In 

 his manners, the Snow Owl has many peculiarities. In his quiet 

 sitting position, his resembles all other large Owls; but his move- 

 ments are quicker and more graceful, his flight being like that of 

 the slow-flying birds of prey. In boldness and tenacity he sur- 

 passes all the rest of the Owl tribe. His food consists chiefly of 

 small quadrupeds, such as the muskrat ; partly also of fish, which 

 he catches with great skill, in nearly the same manner as the 

 Fish-hawk, sitting on a projecting rock and watching for them, 

 until they come to the surface of the water. In winter he prefers 

 the evening or the night to day-time for hunting. His cry is a 

 rough, harsh " craw ! craw !" 



The eggs are laid in the month of June. Their number varies 

 from five to ten — a remarkable number for a large bird of prey 

 like the Snow Owl ; they are oblong and of a dirty white color. 

 The nest consists of a small cavity in the ground, lined with with- 

 ered grass and a few feathers from the mother bird. Both parents 

 are much attached to the young, and on the approach of man, the 

 female flies off a short distance from the nest, and, feigning lame- 

 ness, remains with spread wings, lying on the ground, in order to 

 coax the enemy away from the nest. It has been tried many times 

 to keep Snow Owls in cages ; but they invariably died in a short 

 time without any apparent cause. 



The Snow Bunting. (Plectrofthanes nivalis.) 

 Fig. 2. 



The Snow Bunting inhabits, like the Snow Owl, the northern 

 regions not only of this continent, but also of Europe and Asia. His 

 home is in the mountains, where he builds his nest in crevices of 

 rocks or under stones ; the outside of it is composed of dry grass, 

 moss and lichen, the inside of feathers and soft down : the entrance 

 to it is always narrow ; the eggs, five or six in number, are so ir- 

 regularly marked and colored that a description of them is almost 

 impossible. The song of the male is very pleasant but short. The 

 young birds, when fully fledged, remain for a short time in their 

 old home, then form large flocks and begin their regular wander- 

 ings. As hardly any other birds fly in as large flocks, at least not 

 in northern regions, their wanderings attract the attention, not only 

 of naturalists, but of almost everybody. In Indiana they appear 

 only in small groups of from sixteen to fifty. They travel also 

 considerable distances over the sea. 



In their manners, Snow Buntings resemble Larks. They fly 

 easily, with little flapping of the wings, in long curving lines, gen- 

 erally at considerable heights, and sometimes just above the ground. 

 They are of a lively, frolicksome disposition, and seem to be in 

 good humor even on the coldest winter days. In summer they sub- 

 sist chiefly on insects ; in winter they feed also on several kinds ot 

 seeds. It is very amusing to see a flock of them in winter, on the 

 snow-covered fields, on a foraging tour. They hover over the 

 ground, a part of them alighting to pick up what little seed they 

 can find on such withered plants as extend above the snow, the rest 

 flying just over them a little further along, and then alighting also ; 

 after a while the first party fly over the others, and in this way they 

 go over the whole field. Their cry on such occasions sounds like 

 ' ' fit ;" sometimes it is a shrill ' ' tzirr," uttered during the flight. Our 

 plate represents this bird in its winter dress. The summer dress of 

 the old male is really handsome, notwithstanding its plain colors. 

 The whole middle of the back, the tips of the primaries, and the 

 middle of the tail feathers are black. There is also a black spot 

 on the metacarpus. All the rest of the plumage is snow white. 



