owl laid on the breast of a sleeping person would cause him 
instantly to divulge any secret he might be burdened with. 
The snowy owl, from its size and beautiful appearance, may 
justly be styled the king of owls. It is found in the arctic 
regions of the old and new world; Iceland, Sweden, Norway, 
Lapland, and the north of Europe generally. The head of this 
bird is small, in proportion to the size of his body ; the bill is 
black, and entirely hidden by the hairy feathers at the base ; 
plumage snow-white, but more or less variegated with trans- 
verse brown spots or stripes ; the younger the bird is, the 
larger and more numerous are these spots and stripes; very 
old individuals are pure white, without any brown spot; iris 
fine orange-yellow ; feet very well covered, so as to look almost 
woolly to the claws; tail rounded, not much exceeding in 
length the extremity of the wings. Length twenty-four or 
twenty-five inches. Female considerably larger than the male. 
The habits of a bird coming so little under observation, 
can be of course but little known ; but it has been ascertained 
that its chief prey is hares and rabbits, and such small quad- 
rupeds, swallowing the smaller sorts whole. Stanley makes 
mention of one shot in the island of Balta that disgorged an 
entire young rabbit, and of another in whose stomach was 
discovered a sandpiper, with the whole of its plumage. More- 
over, it is an ascertained fact, that not only do birds of this 
order hunt on land for their prey, but they also take tithe of 
the lakes and rivers. Says a well-known naturalist : “ The 
snowy owl is known to be a regular fishing-bird. Motionless 
as the rock on which he sits, he waits patiently till a fish 
passes, when, with the rapidity of a shot, he seizes it with 
his claws ; but, although asserted by some naturalists, it had 
never been quite proved that the common owls were also fish- 
catchers ; however, the fact has been now confirmed by the tes- 
timony of more than one credible witness. Some years ago, 
several young owls had been taken from a nest, and placed in 
a yew-tree near a gentleman’s house. In this situation it was 
observed that the parent birds repeatedly brought them live 
fish, such as bull-heads and loaches, which had evidently been 
taken from a neighbouring brook, in which these species 
abounded. At subsequent times, bones of the same fish were 
frequently found lying under the trees on which the young 
owls were observed to perch after they had left the nest, and 
where the old ones were accustomed to feed them. How they 
caught them was not then known; and the report of some 
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