GENUS 3. STRIX. OWL. SPECIES 1. STRIX NYCTEA. SNOW OWL. [Plate XXXII.-Fig. 1, Male.] LATHAM I, 132, No. 17.-BUFFON, 1, 387.-Great White Owl, EDW. 61.-Snowy Owl, Arct. Zool. 233, No. 121.-PEALE'S Museum, No. 458.* THE SNOW Owl represented in the plate, is reduced to half its natural size. To preserve the apparent magnitude, the other accompanying figures are drawn by the same scale. This great northern hunter inhabits the coldest and most dreary regions of the northern hemisphere, in both continents. The forlorn mountains of Greenland, covered with eternal ice and snows, where, for nearly half the year, the silence of death and desolation might almost be expected to reign, furnish food and shelter to this hardy adventurer; whence he is only driven by the extreme severity of weather towards the seashore. He is found in Lapland, Norway, and the country near Hudson's Bay, during the whole year; is said to be common in Siberia, and numerous in Kamtschatka. He is often seen in Canada, and the northern districts of the United States; and sometimes extends his visits to the borders of Florida. Nature, ever provident, has so effectually secured this bird from the attacks of cold, that not even a point is left exposed. The bill is almost completely hid among a mass of feathers, that cover the face; the legs are clothed with such an exuberance of long thick hair-like plumage, as to appear nearly as large as those of a middle sized dog, nothing being visible but the claws, which are large, black, much hooked, *We add the following synonymes:-Strix nyctea, LINN. Syst. ed. 10, 1, p. 93.—GMEL. Syst. 1, p. 291.—LATH. Ind. Orn. p. 57. Strix candida, Id. Sup. 2, p. 14.-VIEIL. Ois. de l'Am. Sept. 1, pl. 18.-TEMM. Man. d'Orn. 1, p. 82. and extremely sharp. The whole plumage, below the surface, is of the most exquisitely soft, warm, and elastic kind; and so closely matted together, as to make it a difficult matter to penetrate to the skin. The usual food of this species is said to be hares, grous, rabbits, ducks, mice, and even carrion. Unlike most of his tribe, he hunts by day as well as by twilight, and is particularly fond of frequenting the shores and banks of shallow rivers, over the surface of which he slowly sails, or sits on a rock, a little raised above the water, watching for fish. These he seizes with a sudden and instantaneous stroke of the foot, seldom missing his aim. In the more southern and thickly settled parts he is seldom seen; and when he appears, his size, colour, and singular aspect, attract general notice. In the month of October I met with this bird on Oswego river, New York, 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 upon 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 vollies 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. The colour of this bird is well suited for concealment, while roaming over the general waste of snows; and its flight strong and swift, very similar to that of some of our large Hawks. Its hearing must be exquisite, if we judge from the largeness of these organs in it; and its voice is so dismal, that, as Pennant observes, it adds horror even to the regions of Greenland by its hideous cries, resembling those of a man in deep distress. The male of this species measures twenty-two inches and a half in length, and four feet six inches in breadth; head and neck nearly white, with a few small dots of dull brown interspersed; eyes deep sunk under projecting eyebrows, the plumage at their internal angles fluted or prest in, to admit direct vision, below this it bristles up, covering nearly the whole bill; the irides are of the most brilliant golden yellow, and the countenance, 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; body 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, long 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 bird from which the figure in the plate was drawn, was killed at Egg-Harbour, New Jersey, in the month of December. 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 case being closely covered with a skin, appears at first to be of one continued piece; but on removing the exterior membrane it is found to be formed of fifteen pieces, placed like the staves of a cask, overlapping a little at the base or narrow end, and seem as if capable of being enlarged or contracted, perhaps by the muscular membrane with which they are encased. In five other different species of Owls, which I have since examined, I found nearly the same conformation of this organ, and exactly the same number of staves. The eye being thus fixed, these birds, as they view different objects, are always obliged to turn the head; and nature has so excellently adapted their neck to this purpose, that they can, with ease, turn it round, without moving the body, in almost a complete circle. SPECIES 2. STRIX HUDSONIA.* HAWK OWL. [Plate L.-Fig. 6.] Little Hawk Owl, Edw. 62.-L.ATH. I, 142, No. 29.-Phil. Trans. 61. 385.-Le Chat-huant de Canada, BRISS. 1, 518.-BUFF. 1, 391.-Chouette à longue queue de Siberie, Pl. enl. 463.—Arct. Zool. p. 234, No. 123.-PEALE's Museum, No. 500. THIS is another inhabitant of both continents, a kind of equivocal species, or rather a connecting link between the Hawk and Owl tribes, resembling the latter in the feet, and in the radiating feathers round the eye and bill; but approaching nearer to the former in the smallness of its head, narrowness of its face, and in its length of tail. In short, it seems just such a figure as one would expect to see generated between a Hawk and an Owl of the same size, were it possible for them to produce; and yet it is as distinct, independent, and original a species, as any other. The figure in the plate is reduced to one half the size of life. It has also another strong trait of the Hawk tribe, in flying and preying by day, contrary to the general habit of Owls. It is characterized as a bold and active species, following the fowler, and carrying off his game as soon as it is shot. It is said to prey on Partridges and other birds; and is very common at Hudson's Bay; where it is called by the Indians Coparacoch.† We are also informed that this same species inhabits Denmark and Sweden, is frequent in all Siberia, and on the west side of the Uralian chain, as far as Casan and the Volga; but not in Russia. It was also seen by the navigators near Sandwich sound, in lat. 61° north. * Strix funerea, LINN., which name must be adopted. |