SNOWY OWL. 



471 



" It is only," says Selby, " after patient scrutiny, and a long- course 

 of observation, that I have ventured to bring the synonimes of the 

 Snow, Tawny, and Mountain Bunting, under the same head, and to 

 consider them as belonging to one species, varying only in colour and 

 markings from a difference of age or sex, or from the effect of season. 

 In this view, I am happy in possessing the powerful support of Tem- 

 minck. I am aware that not a few authors, and, amongst the rest, 

 Montagu, (whose excellent works have contributed so essentially towards 

 a correct knowledge of British Ornithology,) hold a different opinion. 

 But, if we examine into the real ground of the evidence upon which 

 they admit a specific distinction between these birds, we shall find it to 

 rest merely upon the difference of colour or markings ; a difference so 

 generally found to prevail between the young and adult, and the male 

 and female, of the feathered tribe. In Northumberland it rarely hap- 

 pens that the three varieties are not annually to be met with, during 

 the winter months ; and I have neglected no opportunity for observa- 

 tion on their economy, the result of which is evident in the opinion I 

 have here assumed. Their habits and modes of action are precisely 

 similar, they utter the same notes, and no difference is perceptible in 

 their anatomical structure ; to which may be added, that, amongst the 

 numbers I have killed, regular gradations of change from one state to 

 the other have repeatedly occurred." 



We shall add to this Selby's very accurate description of the male in 

 its winter plumage. Bill pale saffron-yellow; the tip black; crown of the 

 head white, with the points of the feathers chestnut-brown ; hind part 

 of the head pale yellowish-brown; ear coverts tipped with the same 

 colour ; under parts white, with more or less yellowish-brown upon the 

 breast ; feathers of the back black, deeply edged with greyish-white, or 

 pale yellowish-brown ; lower part of the back and the rump white ; 

 wing coverts and secondaries white, but in the younger birds black, 

 edged with white ; greater quills black, edged with white ; two outer 

 tail feathers white, with a small black spot near their tips; the rest 

 black, edged with white ; legs and toes black ; hind claw produced and 

 nearly straight. In the summer plumage, the head, neck, and all the 

 under parts of the male bird, are pure white ; the back being black. 

 The plumage of the females resembles that of the males in their win- 

 ter's dress, but with more of the yellowish-brown upon the region of 

 the head and the under parts.* 



SNOWY OWL (Strix nyctea, Linnaeus.) 



*Strix Nyctea, Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 201 — Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 57. sp. 20 Meyer, 



Tasschenb. Deut. l.p. 75.— Wits. Araer. Orn. 4. p. 53.pl. 32. f. I, — Ftem. Br. 



