THE SNOWY OWL. 
105 
"How serenely beautiful their noiseless flight ! A flake of snow 
is not winnowed through the air more softly silent !”* Occasion- 
ally, when but little way was made, they remained for a day about 
the ship, and again, as reported to me, " went off for a day and 
returned next morning,” greatly to the surprise of the beholders 
how they could find the ship after a night had intervened. What 
must have added much additional interest to their appearance, was 
the idea entertained, that these birds blown from the coast of La- 
brador, and finding, like the dove of old, "no rest for the sole of 
her foot,” had, after traversing the pathless waters, sought the 
vessel for this purpose, loitering about her course, disappearing 
for a day, and again hastening to repose upon her yards and rig- 
ging. But however pleasing such imaginings, it is not for the 
naturalist here to pause, but in search of truth, assuredly not 
less attractive, to pursue inquiry further. 
If by reason of storms, or otherwise, he cannot perceive why 
the same birds should, after having rested on and left the vessel, 
re-appear another day, he may perhaps conclude, that the owls 
thus seen, were flocks successively migrating to more southern 
latitudes, and that different birds appeared on each occasion, or, 
at all events, that it was not the same individuals which presented 
themselves during the whole period. 
That the regions within the arctic circle are the chief abode of 
the snowy owl is well known, as it likewise is, that numbers mi- 
grate thence in winter to Canada and the United States. [Refer- 
ence to the " log ” will show, that during the five days on which 
these birds were successively observed, the vessel kept nearly to 
the 54th degree of latitude, having sailed during the time about 
500 miles in an easterly direction; consequently, if the flight of 
the owls were to Canada or the States, the vessel, which in such 
event might possibly " have fallen in with ” them a second time, 
was proceeding somewhat in an opposite course, but whither it 
does not appear from the direction of the wind that they would 
have been driven by storms. A greater number of birds, too. 
* Professor Wilson in Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. xx. (1826) p. 671. 
