48 
SNOW OWL. 
In the month of October. I met with this bird on Oswego 
River, New York state, a little below the Falls, vigilantly 
watching for fish. At Pittsburg, in the month of February, I 
saw another, which had been shot in the wing some time 
before. At a place on the Ohio, called Long Reach, I 
examined another, which was the first ever recollected to 
have been seen there. In the town of Cincinnati, state of Ohio, 
two of these birds alighted on the roof of the court house, and 
alarmed the whole town. A people more disposed to 
superstition, would have deduced some dire or fortunate 
prognostication from their selecting such a place ; but the 
only solicitude was how to get possession of them, which, 
after several volleys, was at length effected. One of these, a 
female, I afterwards examined, when on my way through 
that place to New Orleans. Near Bairdstown, in Kentucky, 
I met with a large and very beautiful one, which appeared to 
be altogether unknown to the inhabitants of that quarter, 
and excited general surprise. A person living on the eastern 
shore of Maryland, shot one of these birds a few months ago, 
a female ; and, having stuffed the skin, brought it to 
Philadelphia, to Mr Peale, in expectation, no doubt, of a 
great reward. I have examined eleven of these birds within 
these fifteen months last past, in different and very distant 
parts of the country, all of which were shot either during 
winter, late in the fall, or early in spring ; so that it does 
not appear certain whether any remain during summer 
within the territory of the United States ; though I think it 
highly probable that a few do, in some of the more northern 
inland parts, where they are most numerous during winter. 
years since several young Owls were taken from the nest, and placed in a yew 
tree, in the rectory garden here. In this situation, the parent birds repeatedly 
brought them live fish, bull heads, ( Cottus gobbius,) and loach, ( Cobitis barbatula ,) 
which had doubtless been procured from a neighbouring brook, in which these 
species abound. Since the above period, I have, upon more than one occasion, 
found the same fish, either whole or in fragments, lying under the trees on 
which I have observed the young Owls to perch after they have left the nest, 
and where the old birds were accustomed to feed them.” — E d. 
