Page [114]

GENUS 8. STRIX. OWL.
           SPECIES 1. STRIX NYCTEd.
                      SNOW OWL.
              [Plate XXXII.-Fig. 1, Male.]
LATHAM I, 13%2, A'o. 17.-BUFFON, I, S87.-Great White Owl,
  EDW. 61.-Snowy Owl, a1rct. Zool. 233, No. 11.- IPEALE'S
  XMuseum, Vo. 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 nyclea, LINN. Syst. ed. 10, I,
P.
  93.-GiAEL. SSt. i, p. 291.-LATH. Ind. Orn. p. 57. Strix canidida, Id. Sup.
2, p.
14.--V1irL. Ois. de 1'.Sa. Sept. i, pl. lS.-l n.^i^ Alan. &Orn. I, p.
82.