BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 183 
" note of the young bird resembles the dissyllable 
kee-wick "; a fact that puzzled one of my informants 
who reported that she had heard the " keeieerlr Sc J : 
?t 'Kf IT ^XT' The "hoo-hoo whoo- 
t of the old birds IS a welcome sound, and on a still night 
It IS somewhat weird to hear other Tawny Owls at a 
distance answering back again out of the darkness. 
O,!?';/' ^luVl writes me : "We have an 
Owl (Brown) that has been blind all its days, full grown 
and now stuffed. No eye-holes at all " 
THE SNOWY OWL. Nyctea scandiaca (Luin^us). 
Has occurred once or possibly twice. 
Mr_^R Servwe informs me that the late Mr. Richard Rimmer 
of Dalawoodie was certain he saw a Snowy Owl in the early 
spring of 1861. He watched it sitting on a tree in the park 
trom his dressing-room window at Kirkmichael House 
Mr. R. Service also recorded in 1903, " A f ew years ago 
a specimen was shot on the Dumfriesshire bank of the Esk 
The late H. A. Macpherson fully informed me of the occur- 
rence m his usual kind way, but at the present moment 
I have mislaid the note and cannot, therefore, give any 
further particulars."* In answer to my inquiries, Mr 
Lmn«us Hope (the curator of TuUie House Museum,' 
Carhsle) writes: "A Snowy Owl killed in Dumfriesshire 
and formerly in the possession of Thomas Armstrong was 
given to the Museum by his daughter in 1895. It was in 
such a hopeless condition from moth when given to us 
tnat I cremated it, with Macpherson's approval " 
The Snowy-Owl inhabits the circumpolar regions oc- 
casionally straying south in winter. e , oc 
* Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hut. 5o«., December I8th, 190.1. 
