114 
THE SNOWY OWL. 
soft, and capable of great extension. In one of them I found the whole of a 
large house-rat, in pieces of considerable size, the head and the tail almost 
entire. This bird was very fat, and its intestines, which were thin, and so 
small as not to exceed a fourth of an inch in diameter, measured 41 feet in 
length. 
When skinned, the body of the Snowy Owl appears at first sight compact 
and very muscular, for the breast is large, as are the thighs and legs, these 
parts being covered with much flesh of a fine and delicate appearance, very 
much resembling that of a chicken, and not disagreeable eating, but the 
thorax is very narrow for so large a bird. The keel of the breast-bone is 
fully an inch deep at its junction with the fourchette, which is wide. The 
heart and liver are large : the oesophagus is extremely wide, enabling the bird 
to swallow very large portions of its food at once. The skin may be drawn 
over the head without any difficulty, and from the body with ease. The 
male weighs 4 lbs., the female 4f lb3., avoirdupois. 
The observations which 1 have made induce me to believe that the pure 
and rich light yellowish whiteness of this species belongs to both sexes after 
a certain age. I have shot specimens which were, as I thought, so young as 
to be nearly of a uniform light-brown tint, and which puzzled me for several 
years, as I had at first conceived them to be of a different species. This, 
indeed, led me to think that, when young, these birds are brown. Others 
were more or less marked with broad transverse lines of deep brown or 
black ; but I have seen specimens of both sexes perfectly free from spots, 
excepting on the occiput, where I have never missed them. 
Scarcely is there a winter which does not bring several of these hardy 
natives of the north to the Palls of the Ohio at Louisville. At the break of 
day, one morning, when I lay hidden in a pile of drift logs, ‘at that place, 
waiting for a shot at some wild geese, I had an opportunity of seeing this 
Owl secure fish in the following manner : — While watching for their prey on 
the borders of the .“pots/’ they invariably lay flat on the rock, with the 
body placed lengthwise along the border of the hole, the head also laid down 
but turned towards the water. One might have supposed the bird sound 
asleep, as it would remain in the same position until a good opportunity of 
securing a fish occurred, which I believe was never missed ; for, as the latter 
unwittingly rose to the surface, near the edge, that instant the Owl thrust 
out the foot next the water, and, with the quickness of lightning, seized it, 
and drew it out. The Owl then removed, to the distance of a few yards, 
devoured his prey, and returned to the same hole ; or, if it had not perceived 
any more fish, flew only a few yards over the many pots there, marked one, 
and alighted at a little distance from it. It then squatted, moved slowly 
towards the edge, and lay as before watching for an opportunity . Whenever 
