SNOWY OWL. Q41 



to be a diurnal bird; it preys on white partridges, 

 and continues in Hudson's Bay all the year. The 

 bill is hooked, like a Hawk's, havii?g no angles on 

 the sides, is all black with wide nostrils; the bill 

 almost covered with stiff feathers like hairs, planted 

 round its basis, and reflected forward : the eyes 

 are encompassed with bright yellow irides : the 

 head, whole body, wings, and tail, are of a pure 

 white colour: the top of the head is spotted with 

 small dirty brown spots : the upper part of the 

 back is painted with transverse lines of dusky 

 brown, as are the sides under the wings, but with 

 smaller and fainter lines : the quills on their outer 

 webs are spotted with dusky, and some few little 

 dusky spots on the covert-feathers of the wings: 

 the covert-feathers withinside of the wings are 

 purely white: the lower part of the back is spotless: 

 the middle feathers of the tail on the upper side 

 have a few spots on each side the shafts of the 

 feathers: the legs and feet are covered with white 

 feathers : the claws are long, strong, and of a black 

 colour, very sharp pointed. Another bird of this 

 kind came to my hands together with this, which 

 differed only in that it had more and darker 

 spots." 



A beautiful variety of this bird existed in the 

 Leverian Museum: it was everywhere, except on 

 the face, and legs, most elegantly spotted with 

 numerous transverse lunated brown marks, run- 

 ning into short interrupted bands over the neck and 

 on all the under parts of the bird. This variety 

 is figured in the second volume of the Naturalist's 



V. VII. ^ 16 



