INTRODUCTION.

 

xlvi

Thi ll North-American species,” Says Mr. Stevenson, ‘ was first included among the accidental
«This small North-- j

© Varrell. in the third edition of bis ‘ British Birds,’ in which will be
isl is C -y by the late Mr. Yarrell, in
visitants to this country D}
found the notice of a specimen shot in the neighbourhood of Leeds in 1852, of which a figure and description
ound the notic as

‘Naturalist’ for the same year (p. 169). Mr. Gurney informs me that some years back

were given in the
| hased from the late Mr Thartell an adult specimen of this rare Owl, said to have been killed near
ie purchas Mr.

-a Euronean Scops Owl. This bird was unfortunatel ‘OV
Yarmouth, but till then supposed to be only a European Scops Ow y destroyed

. Be esd = 2 ”
after it came into Mr. Gurney’s possession.

Genus NycrTea.

Of this form the single species known is exclusively an inhabitant of the high northern regions of both the

Old and the New World.

: ; , : : Vol. ¥. PIE xoxox

41, Nycrea NIVEA

Svowy Ow .

I have always regarded this bird as an accidental visitor to England, Scotland, and Ireland; but Mr. J.
H. Dunn informs me that forty-five years ago it bred every year on the hills about four miles from Strom-
ness, and Mr. Robert Gray says it may almost be regarded as a regular spring visitant to the Hebrides. _ Its
great size and powerful claws indicate that quadrupeds of considerable bulk are within the compass of its
destructive powers ; and hence the hare, the lemming, white grouse, and the ptarmigan have but little
chance of escape when once enclosed within the grasp of its talons. Its proper home is the icebound

regions of the north; in Lapland it follows the lemmings in their migration southwards.

“So little has been published in England,” says Professor Newton, when exhibiting some rare eggs at a
meeting of the Zoological Society (Dec. 10, 1861), “ respecting the Snowy-Owl’s manner of nidificatmoneghen
I hold myself excused for presenting the information I have been able to collect on the subject: gene

According to Herr Wallengren, Professor Lilljeborg, on June 3rd, 1843, found on the Dovrefjeld a nest of
this bird containing seven eggs, placed on a little shelf on the top of a bare mountain far from the forest and
easy of access. Professor Nilsson mentions, on the authority of Herr A. G. Nordvi, that the Lapps in Kast

Finmark assert th:
Ss iat the Snowy-Owl lays from ej . ; .
é Snowy-Owl lays from eight to ten eggs, in a little depression on the bare ground on

oo
od

the high mountai nes a ae ;
g ains. ‘These accounts were in every way corroborated by the information obtained by Mr.

John Wolley during hi
during his : :
: es long sojourn in Lapland. He several times met with persons who had found nests

of this Owl, and states ri i
states that he was told the old birds sometimes attack persons that approach their nests.

. .. They seem to br
; ys 0 breed ¢ Fenner :
cmmonly, in the districts explored by him, only when the lemmings are unusually