THE TAWNY AND SNOWY OWLS. 
95 
It is enumerated in the lists of birds published in several of the 
Statistical Surveys of counties, and in other catalogues, but in 
such a manner as to be unworthy of record here. It never 
occurred to Mr. Templeton, nor have any of my ornithological 
friends or correspondents met with a specimen. The only notice 
which seems authentic, is that published in the 1st volume of the 
Annals of Natural History, p. 156, to the following effect : — That 
in Eeb., 1838, Mr. Adams, gamekeeper at Shane's Castle park, 
assured me of a specimen having been killed there, within the 
preceding few years. From the circumstance of my informant 
having served in the capacity of gamekeeper in England, before 
coming to this country, he became acquainted with the species, which 
he correctly described to me under the name of " brown owl." 
The gentleman who, in the Zoologist for June 1848, (p. 2141,) 
and Saunders' News-letter of the 9th of that month, noticed the 
tawny owl as having been obtained in the Queen's county, men- 
tions, in a letter to me, that he was mistaken respecting the 
species. 
Mr. Macgillivray remarks, that "in the northern parts of 
Scotland this species is seldom, if ever, met with ; but in the 
wooded portions of the middle and southern divisions, it is more 
frequently obtained than any other, excepting the long-eared and 
bam owls," vol. iii. p. 442. 
THE SNOWY OWL. 
Surnia nyctea , Linn, (sp.) 
Strix „ ,, 
Is a very rare winter visitant. 
It is said to have been met with in 1812 and 1827.* Speci- 
mens killed in two winters only — 1834-35, and 1837-38 — have 
come under my own examination. To what I have already pub- 
* To Mr. J. Poole, I am indebted for the following note : — Mr. B. Vicary, of 
Wexford, when residing at Kilmore, on the south coast, in 1812, near an extensive 
rahhit-burrow, was told on the first day of the shooting season that year, of a very 
large, white, extraordinary looking bird being perched on a fence at a short distance 
from the house. It remained on the spot until seen in staring majesty by that gen- 
