THE SNOWY OWL. 
97 
time in different parts of Ireland. One may be mentioned as 
having been received from the county of Longford, on the 5th of 
April, by a bird-preserver in Dublin. When in that city, in the 
spring of 1838, I saw, in the possession of Edward Waller, Esq., 
a very fine specimen of the snowy owl, said to have been shot 
about three years before that time, near Omagh, in the county of 
Tyrone. There can be little doubt that this bird was of the same 
“flight” as the others. I was pleased to hear from Dr. P. Neill 
of Edinburgh, in August, 1835, that he had received a snowy owl 
alive, in the spring of that year, from Orkney, where it was cap- 
tured at the end of March. Dr. Neill has contributed a very 
interesting account of this individual to Sir William Jardine’s 
History of British Birds, vol. i. p. 307. It is there said to have 
been taken in the middle of April. 
On the 2nd of December, 1837, a beautiful specimen of the 
snowy owl was shot in a quarry on Scrabo mountain, in the county 
of Down, and came into the possession of Thomas M'Leroth, 
Esq., of Killinether House, in that neighbourhood, who liberally 
presented it to the Belfast Museum. Having come under my 
inspection in a recent state, I drew up the following description 
of this bird, which differs in some particulars from other speci- 
mens described in detail.* On that account, and for the purpose 
of comparison with individuals noticed in the sequel, it is here 
given : — 
inch. line. 
Length, entire ......... 24 0 
Length of wing from carpus to end of longest quill .16 6 
tarsus 2 3 
bill measured along ridge 19 
— - cere on its ridge ...... 0 9 
bill in a straight line from rictus to outer edge . 1 9 
middle toe ........ 1 6 
its claw, following curvature .... 1 8 
its claw in a straight line 1 34 
inner claw, following curvature .... 1 9 
outer claw, following curvature .... 1 6 
hind claw, following curvature .... 1 5 
Wings past the tail ....... , 1 6 
* See Fauna Boreali- Americana, part ii, p. 190. 
VOL. I. H 
