56 



SNOW OWL. 



darker color than those on the male; the chin, throat, face, belly 

 and vent are white; femoral feathers white, long and shaggy, mark- 

 ed 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 crow n 

 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 exa- 

 mined, 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 month of December. The con- 

 formation of the eye of this bird forms a curious and interesting 

 subject to the young anatomist. The globe of the eye is immove- 

 ably 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 re- 

 moving 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 or 

 contracted, perhaps by the muscular membrane with which they are 

 encased. In five other different species of Owls, which I have since 

 examined, I found nearly the same conformation of this organ, and 

 exactly the same number of staves. The eye being thus fixed, these 

 birds, as they view different objects, are always obliged to turn the 

 head; and nature has so excellently adapted their neck to this pur- 

 pose, that they can, with ease, turn it round, without moving the 

 body, in almost a complete circle. 



