NYCTEA NIVEA.
Snowy Owl.

Strix nyctea, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 132.

—— nivea, Daud. Traité d’Orn., tom. ii. p. 190.

—— candida, Lath. Ind. Orn., Suppl. p. 14.

—— wapacuthu, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 291.
arctica, Bartr. Trav., p. 285.

Nyctea erminea, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. vii. Denote

—— cinerea, Steph. Cont. Shaw Gen. Zool., vol. xiii. p- 63.
_Surnia nyctea, Edmonst. Mem. Wern. Soc., vol. iv. p. 157 .—Thomps. Ann. N
Noctua nyctea, Boié, Isis, 1822, p. 770.

Nyctea nivea, Brehm, Isis, 1834.

candida, Swains. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. eile

 

at. Hist. vol. i. p. 241.

 

 

Tue Snowy Owl belongs to a great group of birds, so universally dispersed that I believe no portion of the
world is destitute of one or other of its members. This universal distribution of the Strigidee, some of which
are nocturnal, while others are diurnal, is no less interesting than are the diversities of structure observable
among them: some are adapted for the capture of living prey of large size, others for seizing the smaller
quadrupeds and birds, and others again for insects and their larvee. Thus the huge Athenes of Australia destroy
the Koalas, the Phalangers, the smaller Kangaroos, Perameles, and other less important Marsupials; the
Huhua nipalensis of India is said by Mr. Jerdon to prey on hares, cats, rats, and fish; and in Africa we find
the Scotopelia Peh, whose great size and extraordinarily developed talons, we may be assured, are adapted
either for a similar purpose or, perhaps, for the destruction of the Co/odi and other Monkeys of that country.
In the northern regions of the Old World, we have the two powerful species of the genus Budo. Of the natural
food of these Great Owls we know but little, except that they are said to feed on fawns, hares, rats, and small
quadrupeds, and birds of many kinds, particularly Ptarmigan and Grouse. The members of the restricted
genus S¢ri# are more universally dispersed than those of any other form of the entire family, and feed almost
exclusively on mice and other small Rodents. The diurnal Owls, forming the genus Noctua, prey upon birds
and insects ; and it is probable that the numerous minute species found in South America are mortal enemies
to the Trochilide, in confirmation of which I may mention that these little birds show their aversion
to the Owls, by attacking them with the utmost fury whenever they come in contact with them. To
generalize further on the Strigide as a whole would be out of place; and I have merely made these few
remarks on their distribution and varied habits for those of my readers who are not professed ornithologists,
and to state that the Snowy Owl is a denizen of the ice-bound regions of northern Europe, Siberia, Iceland,
Greenland, Labrador, and the country north of Davis's and Barrow’s Straits between America and the
unknown land; it also tenants the icebergs which become separated from the mainland and ioe towards
warmer regions: the Snowy Owl finds a plentiful supply of food in tie numerous birds which settle on
these floating masses ; here, in company with Polar Bears, with which it shares the seal and the walrus, it
spends much of its time; and its whole structure, colouring
such a mode of life. Cold has no effect upon it; on the contrary, it is what it covets. During the
breeding-season it proceeds further south, and seeks the milder countries of Norway, Finland, Heine.
and the fur-countries of America. On the bleak moorland, where none other but the Lapp or the Esquimaux
sets his foot, the Snowy Owl performs the duty of reproduction, its mest being Ce 2 eo ee
and its numerous progeny reared among Hares, Lemmings, Ptarmigans, &c., which alford them an

, and thick plumage are wonderfully adapted for

abundance of nutriment.

Dr. Falconer has called my attention to a pass
flight of geese going N.N.W., and a White Owl (Strix nyc
beyond the Paranon Rocks, and north of the coast-line of Arctic
“the Owl is a carnivorous bird, and follows the White Bear to
that he follows the Bear out upon the ice away from the land.

In the British Islands, therefore, my readers will be prepare
s the following notices of its occurrence

Se ; es
age In Wrangel’s ‘ Expedition to the Polar Sea ’—‘‘ Saw a
tea), On the 1st of May, 150 werst, ?.e. 100 miles,
Siberia.” .... At page cxxili, he says that

feed on the remains of his prey,’ meaning

d to learn that it is only a chance visitor ; still

its visi (which I give on the authority
its visits are by no means unfrequent, a

of their authors) will testify.

“As a British species,” says Macgillivray,
who met with it in the course of a tour through
Dr. Lawrence Edmonston, of Shetland, who, in 18

«the Snowy Owl was first described in 1812 by Mr. Bullock,
Orkney and Shetland ; but it had previously been found by

22 published a detailed account of its habits in the
fal hal