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^1.— Observations on the Snowy Owl, (Strix 
Nyctea, Linn.) 
By Laurence Edmondston, Esq. 
{Read ^3d March 1822.) 
The Snowy Owl was long known to be a native of the 
northern countries of Europe, but it has only more recent- 
ly been ascertained to be a British bird. 
I fell in with this species in Zetland, first in 181 1 ; and, 
the following spring, I shot an adult male, which I shortly 
after presented to the proprietor of the Piccadilly Museum, 
Mr Bullock, at the same time communicating to him some 
facts regarding its habits which had come under my ob- 
servation. That gentleman soon after published an account 
of this species in the Transactions of the Linnean Society 
of London ; and since that period, it has, of course, been 
considered as a British bird. 
Its Zetland name is Catyogle, which is indeed the gene- 
ral appellation given indiscriminately to all owls in that 
country, and it occurs chiefly in the Island of Unst, the 
most northerly of the group ; but even there it is extreme- 
ly rare, and very local, attaching itself only to two or three 
