100 
STRIGIM. 
mg on the body just before the carpal joint of the wing. The supposed fema les 
which are much larger than the last mentioned, differ exceedingly from it in mark- 
ings. They have the facial plumage, or that within the disk, the throat, body beneath 
the wings, under surface of the latter, the legs and toes, pure white. The head to the 
disk posteriorly, back, upper side of wings, and whole plumage between the folded 
wings, present as much of a blackish-brown colour as of white, the former being 
disposed in the same manner as described in the specimen from Scrabo ; but the 
bars and other dark markings are so broad as to occupy equal space with the white or 
“ground” colour. 
As immature, and more especially young birds of the year, 
often wander farther from their native domicile, than those which 
have attained maturity, it hitherto appeared singular to me, 
that none of the specimens of the snowy owl obtained in so 
southern a limit of their flight as England and Ireland, should be 
in the garb described as assumed previous to the first moult. The 
plumage of these Labrador birds, however, satisfied me, that the 
young of the snowy owl, like the immature individuals of many 
other species, do scatter themselves more widely than the adults. 
The bird shot at Scrabo was, I have no doubt, a nestling in the 
summer of 1837. The individual figured by Mr. Selby* is also 
less white than Mr. Langtry's male bird, and if belonging to the 
same sex, I should consider it a bird of the first year. Of two 
other individuals, male and female, recorded by Mr. Selby to have 
been killed in Northumberland, in 1823, the latter was, from the 
number of black bars and spots, considered by that gentleman to 
be a young bird, but no opinion on the age of the male is offered ; 
he is, however, stated to have been much whiter than the female, 
a circumstance which, as we have seen, does not militate against 
his also being a young bird of the year. Of the other specimens 
killed in England, I have not seen such detailed descriptions as 
enable me to judge of their age from comparison with the Labra- 
dor birds ; nor, in consequence of its sex being unknown, can a 
satisfactory opinion be offered on the first snowy owl recorded to 
have been obtained in Ireland. (Zool. Proc. 1835, p. 78.) Were 
the sex of the individuals known, we should probably find that the 
* 111. Brit. Orn. pi. 23. 
f See Naturalist’s Library : Brit. Birds, Part I. p. 307. 
