i 



53 



SNOW OWL. 

 STBIX NYCTEA, 

 [Plate XXXIL— Fig. 1, ;>fa/^.] 



Latham, I, 132, Ao. 17.— Buffon, I, 387. — Great White Owl, Edw. 61. — Snowy Owl, 

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



THE Snow Owl represented in the plate is reduced to half its 

 natural size. To preserve the apparent magnitude the other ac- 

 companying 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 de- 

 solation 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 Lap- 

 land, Norway and the country near Hudson^s bay during the whole 

 year ; is said to be common in Siberia, and numerous in Kamt- 

 schatka. 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, whicli 

 are large, black, much hooked, and extremely sharp. The whole 

 plumage below the surface is of the most exquisitely soft, w arm and 



VOL. IV. 



