SNOWY OWL. 
471 
It is onl}?-,” says Selby, “ after patient scrutiny, and a long- course 
of observation, that I have ventured to bring the synonimes of the 
Snow, Tawny, and Mountain Bunting, under the same head, and to 
consider them as belonging to one species, varying only in colour and 
markings from a dilference of age or sex, or from the effect of season. 
In this view, I am happy in possessing the powerful support of Tem- 
minck. I am aware that not a few authors, and, amongst the rest, 
Montagu, (whose excellent v/orks have contributed so essentially towards 
a correct knowledge of British Ornithology,) hold a different opinion. 
But, if we examine into the real ground of the evidence upon which 
they admit a specific distinction between these birds, we shall find it to 
rest merely upon the difference of colour or markings ; a difference so 
generally found to prevail between the young and adult, and the male 
and female, of the feathered tribe. In Northumberland it rarely hap- 
pens that the three varieties are not annually to be met with, during 
the winter months ; and I have neglected no opportunity for observa- 
tion on their economy, the result of which is evident in the opinion I 
have here assumed. Their habits and modes of action are precisely 
similar, they utter the same notes, and no difference is perceptible in 
their anatomical structure ; to which may be added, that, amongst the 
numbers I have killed, regular gradations of change from one state to 
the other have repeatedly occurred.” 
We shall add to this Selby’s very accurate description of the male in 
its winter plumage. Bill pale saffron-yellow; the tip black; crown of the 
head white, with the points of the feathers chestnut-brown ; hind part 
of the head pale yellowish-brown; ear coverts tipped with the same 
colour ; under parts white, with more or less yellowish-brown upon the 
breast ; feathers of the back black, deeply edged with greyish-white, or 
pale yellowish-brown ; lower part of the back and the rumj) white ; 
wing coverts and secondaries white, but in the younger birds black, 
edged with white ; greater quills black, edged with white ; tv/o outer 
tail feathers white, with a small black spot near their tips; the rest 
black, edged with white ; legs and toes black ; hind claw produced and 
nearly straight. In the summer plumage, the head, neck, and all the 
under parts of the male bird, are pure white ; the back being black. 
The plumage of the females resembles that of the males in their win- 
ter’s dress, but with more of the yellowish-brown upon the region of 
the head and the under parts.* 
SNOWY OWL nyctea^ Linnaeus. ) 
* Strix Nyctea, Gmel. Syst. 1, p. 201. — Laih. Inch Orn. 1. p. 57. sp. 20. Mei/er, 
Tasschenb. Deut. l.p. 75. — Wils. Amer. Orn. 4. p. 53.pl. 32. f. 1,— F/m. Br. 
