92 
STRIX NYCTEA. 
curving streak of brown black, with another a little 
behind it of a triangular form ; back, scapulars, rump, 
and tail coverts, brown olive, thickly speckled with 
broad spots of white ; the tail extends three inches 
beyond the tips of the wings, is of a brown olive colour, 
and crossed with six or seven narrow bars of white, 
rounded at the end, and also tipt with white ; the breast 
and chin is marked with a large spot of brown olive ; 
upper part of the breast, light ; lower, and all the parts 
below, elegantly barred with dark brown and white ; 
legs and feet, covered to and beyond the claws with long 
whitish plumage, slightly yellow, and barred with fine 
lines of olive ; claws, horn colour. The weight of this 
bird was twelve ounces. 
The female is much darker above ; the quills are 
nearly black; and the upper part of the breast is blotched 
with deep blackish brown. 
It is worthy of remark, that in all owls that fly by 
night, the exterior edges and sides of the wing quills 
are slightly recurved, and end in fine hairs or points ; 
by means of which the bird is enabled to pass through 
the air with the greatest silence, a provision necessary 
for enabling it the better to surprise its prey. In the 
hawk owl now before us, which flies by day, and to 
whom this contrivance would be of no consequence, it 
is accordingly omitted, or at least is scarcely observable. 
So judicious, so wise, and perfectly applicable, are all 
the dispositions of the Creator. 
26 . STRIX NYCTEA , WILSON. — SNOW OWL. 
WILSON, PLATE XXXII. FIG. I. -—MALE. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE 
MUSEUM. 
This great northern hunter inhabits the coldest and 
most dreary regions of the northern hemisphere on 
both continents. The forlorn mountains of Greenland, 
covered with eternal ice and snows, where, for nearly 
