188 
HORNED OWLS, ETC. 
Distribution. — Breeds in arctic portions of the northern hemisphere, 
migrating south in North America almost across the United States and 
even reaching, accidentally, the Bermudas. 
Nest. — In a slight depression of the ground, on a knoll, made of a few 
feathers, lichens, or moss. Eggs: usually 5 to 7, white. 
Food. — In summer, lemmings and meadow mice ; in winter, fish, hares, 
muskrats, squirrels, rats, ptarmigans, ducks, and even offal. 
Tlie snowy owl is a circumpolar species,- breeding in the arctic 
parts of the northern hemisphere and coming south in winter. 
Mr. Nelson, while traveling south of the Yukon in December, shot 
an owl whose nearly immaculate milky white plumage was suffused 
with ‘ a rich and extremely beautiful shade of clear lemon yellow, 
exactly as the rose blush clothes the entire plumage of some gulls in 
spring. The morning after the bird was killed the color was gone, 
the plumage being dead white.’ 
GENUS SURNIA. 
377a. Surnia ulula caparoch (Mull.). American Hawk Owl. 
Head without ear tufts; ear openings small like Bubo and Nyctea ; tail long, 
more than two thirds length of wing, graduated; tarsus scarcely or not longer 
than middle toe; feet thickly 
feathered to claws. Adults: face 
grayish white, encircled by heavy 
black ring; patches on throat, 
sides of head, and back of neck 
black; chest band whitish; rest 
of under parts closely and regularly barred with brown and white; top 
of head and hind neck blackish or brownish, dotted with white; rest of 
upper parts dark brown, mainly spotted or barred with white. Young: 
upper parts dark brown, feathers of top of head and hind neck tipped 
with grayish buff, those of back with indistinctly lighter tips; lores and 
ear coverts brownish black ; rest of face whitish; under parts whitish, 
washed with sooty on chest, barred below. Length: 14.75-17.50, wing 
about 9, tail 6.80-7.00. 
Distribution. — Northern North America, south in winter to the north¬ 
ern United States, casually to Massachusetts, and rarely to the British Isles. 
Recorded from northern Montana and Newfoundland in the breeding season. 
Nest. — Old woodpecker holes, natural cavities in trees, and old nests of 
other species relined with moss and feathers. Eggs: 3 to 7, white. 
Food. — Small mammals, such as mice, lemmings, and ground squirrels; 
also ptarmigans and insects. 
“ The hawk owl is strictly diurnal, as much so as any of the hawks, 
and like some of them often selects a tall stub or dead-topped tree in 
a comparatively open place for a perch, where it sits in the bright 
sunlight watching for its prey. Although the flight is swift and 
hawk-like, it has nevertheless the soft, noiseless character common 
to the other owls. When starting from any high place, such as the 
top of a tree, it usually pitches down nearly to the ground, and flies 
off rapidly above the tops of the bushes or high grass, abruptly ris- 
Fig. 251. 
