SNOW OWL. 
95 
are of the most brilliant golden yellow, and the counte- 
nance, from the proportionate smallness of the head, 
projection of the eyebrow, and concavity of the plumage 
at the angle of the eye, very different from that of any 
other of the genus ; general colour of the body, white, 
marked with lunated spots of pale brown above, and 
with semicircular dashes below ; femoral feathers, long, 
and legs covered, even over the claws, with long shaggy 
hair-like down, of a dirty white ; the claws, when 
exposed, appear large, much hooked, of a black colour, 
and extremely sharp pointed ; back, white ; tail, rounded 
at the end, white, slightly dotted with pale brown near 
the tips ; wings, when closed, reach near the extremity 
of the tail ; vent feathers, large, strong shafted, and 
extending also to the point of the tail ; upper part of 
the breast and belly, plain white ; bodj^, very broad and 
flat. 
The female, which measures two feet in length, and 
five feet two inches in extent, is covered more thickly 
with spots of a much darker colour than those on the 
male ; the chin, throat, face, belly, and vent, are white ; 
femoral feathers white, Jong, and shaggy, marked with 
a few heart-shaped spots of brown ; legs also covered 
to the claws with long white hairy down ; rest of the 
plumage white, every feather spotted or barred with 
dark brown, largest on the wing quills, where they are 
about two inches apart ; fore part of the crown, thickly 
marked with roundish black spots ; tail, crossed with 
bands of broad brownish spots ; shafts of all the plumage, 
white ; bill and claws, as in the male, black ; third and 
fourth wing quill the longest ,' span of the foot, four 
inches. 
From the various individuals of these birds which I 
have examined, I have reason to believe that the male 
alone approaches nearly to white in his plumage, the 
female rarely or never. The conformation of the eye 
of this bird forms a curious and interesting subject 
to the young anatomist. The globe of the eye is 
immoveably fixed in its socket, by a strong elastic hard 
cartilaginous case, in form of a truncated cone ; this 
