310 
SNOWY OWL. 
noise or clank, by striking the two mandibles 
together. The gardener could put his fingers into 
the owl’s mouth, without having them nipped, or 
without the bird’s attempting to bite. Perhaps 
this was the result of habit or education, from Mr 
Lawson having daily fed him in that mode for 
some weeks. But the claws were evidently the 
principal offensive weapons on which the animal 
depended, and they were sharp, dangerous, and 
powerful. Mr Lawson observed that, latterly, 
when he got a favourite piece of meat, he trans- 
fixed it, and held it firm with the claw of the 
back or inner toe, in the maimer of our Vulture 
( Calharles papa ) ; not with the fore- toes and claws 
like our Eagle ( Falco albicilla). Mr Audubon 
mentioned, that a Snowy Owl, kept in confine- 
ment by him, used to feed on small fishes, or pieces 
of fish, placed in water, but our bird declined that 
sort of food. On one occasion the gardener forced 
a small fish down his throat, and next day the 
bones were vomited in the form of a pellet, being 
the only instance in which we observed this cir- 
cumstance. When a pigeon was given to him, we 
had to pluck off the feathers before he would 
touch it. 
“ The hoot of our Owl consisted of two notes, 
somewhat resembling the call of the cuckoo, but 
shorter or quicker. He also occasionally uttered 
a single unharmonious note, not unlike the croak- 
