Snowy owl

“ The snowy owl (Strix nyctea) is, perhaps, the most beautiful, as it is one of the most powerful birds of its genus—of which there are more than a dozen in North America. It is a bird of the Polar regions—even the most remote—and in the dead of winter it is found within the Arctic circle, on both Continents—although at the same season it also wanders farther south. It dwells upon the Barren Grounds as well as in wooded districts. In the former it squats upon the snow, where its peculiar colour often prevents it from being noticed by the passing hunter. ”

“ But she saw few living things; once there was a great snowy owl that rose heavily and then flew swiftly and in silence from a stump in a brulé, disappearing among the trees like an animated shadow, 93 yes, a shadow of sudden death to hares and partridges cowering beneath the fronds of wide-spreading conifers or in the great tangles of frost-killed long grasses. ”

“ He seeks for places where a less severe cold encourages small birds to be abroad, or where the snow’s crust is less icy, through which the field mice may bore their tunnels, and run hither and thither in the moonlight, pulling down the weeds and cracking their frames of ice. Heedless of passing clouds, these little rodents scamper about, until a darker, swifter shadow passes, and the feathered talons of the snowy owl close over the tiny, shivering bundle of fur. ”

“ I shall say but a passing word, therefore, of the Great Snowy Owl, almost exclusively an inhabitant of the Arctic regions, where he frightens both man and beast with his dismal hootings,—or of the Cat Owl, the prince of these monsters, who should be consecrated to Pluto,—or of his brother monster, the Gray Owl, that will carry off a full-grown rabbit. There are several other species, more or less interesting, ridiculous, or frightful. I will leave them, to speak of birds of more pleasing habits and a more innocent character. ”

“ Of this point I have recently been more convinced than ever from the study of two living specimens of Owls—the Snowy Owl and the Short-eared Owl—which have been in my possession for some months. For instance, taking one out of the many positions indulged in by the first of these birds, what would my criticising friends have thought and said had I represented him as a round ball of white feathers, head hardly perceptible, feet entirely concealed, and squatting on the ground like a hen covering her chickens? ”

“ He lives in the far north and comes down to us only in the very cold weather, when snow covers the ground. When we see the great white fellow with his large yellow eyes, we can hardly wonder why the Woodfolk were so frightened. But the truth of it is that Snowy Owl, unless very hungry, would not harm the birds at all, for he lives mostly upon the small four-footed animals. What a pity it is that our birds leave us in the winter, some of them to go all the way to South America, just because of a superstitious fear for an arctic visitor who would not harm them if he could! ”

“ I do not claim that my Owl was more brilliant than the Owls of my fellow Unnaturalists, but only that I had superior opportunities to study. When a Little Brother of the Woods sees anything that I have missed, I do not call him a liar, and I expect others to pay the same courtesy to me.
I became so interested in Owls that I determined to spend the Winter in my cabin. The Snowy Owl is abroad only in Winter—in Summer he is grey. Nature changes his flannels 210for him to make him feel safer. “Death loves a shining mark.” ”

“ Owls are constantly mobbed by other birds, especially when dazed by sunlight, the Little Owl being used as a lure on the Continent. They migrate to a greater or less extent, the autumnal visits of the Short-eared Owl being especially well-known in Britain; yet the Snowy Owl often remains in the far north in winter. The flesh is not generally reckoned palatable, but Bubo, Asio, Nyctea, Carine and Scops at least are eaten by the natives of various countries; superstition, however, usually prevents the murder of an Owl, which is usually supposed to entail evil, though in a few places good luck. ”

“ In winter, when this Owl is fat, the Indians and white residents in the Fur Countries esteem it to be good eating; its flesh is delicately white. Small snakes are the common prey of this Owl during the daytime. And to show on what various kinds of food Owls subsist, Mr. Darwin states that a species that was killed among the islets of the Chonos Archipelago had its stomach full of good-sized crabs. Such are a few of the facts which attest the almost omnivorous appetite of the Owl.
The flight of the Snowy Owl is stronger and swifter than any other bird of the family; its ears are very large ”

“ All owls have the habit of sitting still upon some high point which harmonizes with the general color of their feathers, and swooping upon any sound or movement that indicates game. The long-eared, or eagle-owl invariably selects a dark colored stub, on top of which he appears as a part of the tree itself, and is seldom noticed; while the snowy owl, whose general color is soft gray, will search out a birch or a lightning-blasted stump, and sitting up still and straight, so hide himself in plain sight that it takes a good eye to find him. ”

“ Acquitted!" said the Eagle. "Snowy Owl, it is your turn." This beautiful white Owl, marked here and there with black bars and spots, had a smooth round head like a snowball, great yellow eyes, and thickly feathered feet; his bill and claws were black, but you could hardly see them for the thickness of the feathers in which they were muffled up. He winked with each eye, clicked Iris bill once or twice, and thus began:
"I'm a very good-looking bird, as you see—fatally beautiful, in fact ”

“ The snowy owl, a beautiful bird either pure white or barred with black, nests in the north and visits the United States in winter. It is a day owl. It feeds on fish, birds, small mammals etc. The burrowing owl is a small western owl living in the holes of prairie dogs. It is a savage little creature, a great fighter, these owls frequently killing each other. They feed largely on grasshoppers, locusts, and other insects. Their color is mixed gray, their legs long and bare. See Hornaday: American Natural History. ”

“ The owl measured exactly two feet in length from the point of the bill to the end of the tail; and its “alar spread,” as naturalists term it, was full five feet in extent. It was of a clove-brown colour, beautifully mottled with white, and its bill and eyes were of a bright gamboge yellow. Like all of its tribe that winter in the Arctic wilds, it was feathered to the toes. Lucien reflected that this species lives more in the woods than the “great snowy owl,” and, as he had heard, is never found far out on the Barren Grounds during winter. ”

“ This owl is an arboreal bird. It is partly diurnal in habit, and feeds on insects. The little thing is hardly as large as the average sparrow.
5. The Nycteininœ, or day-owls. This small group has but two genera, with one species in each. But here occurs the very handsomest species of the American owls. Fig. 9 shows that splendid bird known as the snowy owl, the arctic owl (Nyctea nivea, Gray) . It has been found with a length of twenty-seven inches. Some adults are nearly all white—hence, as a show-bird, it is a favorite. We saw not long since a fine mounted specimen in a New Jersey tavern. ”

“ This bird is literally as white as snow, though the females and the younger birds have some 230brownish feathers. The snowy owl is a bird of prey, and night and day are the same to him. The ptarmigan and the tern, cannot, all of them, find food during the long Iceland winters; therefore, some of them, in their turn, furnish dinners for his majesty, the white owl. When the wind beats, and the snow drives, so that they would sweep the birds to destruction, out comes this king of the wilds, clad in his armor of impenetrable down and feathers ”

“ A rabbit, a weasel, a mink, or even a skunk is good eating for the owl. And there are times when one owl will make a meal of another owl of smaller size. A large red-tailed hawk was once put into a garret where there was a snowy owl. That night the hawk was killed and partly eaten by the owl. A tame great horned owl and a little screech owl were shut up in a hay loft together. The wings of the big owl were cut so he could not fly. After about a week they both became one owl, and that owl threw up the claws, beak, bones, and feathers which had once been useful to the little screech owl. ”

“ The Snowy Owl dearly loves the snow—and there is, we believe, a tradition among them, that their first ancestor and ancestress rose up together from a melting snow-wreath on the very last day of a Greenland winter, when all at once the bright fields reappear. The race still inhabits that frozen coast—being common, indeed, through all the regions of the Arctic Circle. It is numerous on the shores of Hudson's Bay, in Norway, Sweden, and Lapland—but in the temperate parts of Europe and America "rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno." ”

“ Ten or twelve Owls, among which, as a rare visitor, we find the Great Gray Owl, (Syrnium cinereum,) and the Snowy Owl, which is quite common in the winter season on the prairies, preying upon grouse and hares. Of the Vultures, we have two, as summer visitors, the Turkey-Buzzard and the Black Vulture.
Of omnivorous birds, sixteen or eighteen species, among which is the Raven, which here takes the place of the Crow, the two species not being able to live together, as the stronger robber drives away the weaker. ”

“ In general we've accepted the value of birds to man, and are appreciative of the complicated web of life in which one animal affects many others. But this use of snowy-owl abundance as a guide in granting credit strikes me as novel. Actually, of course, it is quite sound, for it uses one part of the chain that links such diverse items as owls, lemmings, foxes, Eskimo, fur trader, and finally of course milady in her white-fox furs. ”

“ If he were full grown he would be pure white. The dark color you see is only the tips of the feathers. You can’t see his beak very well for the soft feathers almost cover it.
His large soft eyes look very pretty out of the white feathers. What color would you call them? Most owls are quiet during the day and very busy all night. The Snowy Owl is not so quiet day times. He flies about considerably and gets most of his food in daylight. ”

“ The Snowy is a day-flying owl and therefore may be seen perched high on a sand dune looking around for mice. Its home is in the Arctic tundra, where it feeds on Lemmings. When these are scarce during the winter, the Snowy migrates southward to new feeding grounds. Because it is not used to humans, you can often get quite close to this owl before it will be frightened into flight. ”

“ Donald Gunn writes that the Snowy Owl is merely a visitor in the districts to the west of Lake Winnepeg, but is a constant inhabitant of the country surrounding Hudson Bay. There they hatch their young, from three to five in number, making their nests in the forks of some tall poplar-tree. They lay their eggs very early in the spring, and have hatched their young before other birds begin to nest. ”

“ All the Owls found in the northern portion of the United States, are in some measure migratory, and some species appear to travel in large bands, scattered over a considerable extent of country. The Snowy Owl is sometimes abundant for a few days, and then will suddenly disappear from a district, perhaps soon to appear again. The Marsh Owl appears along the river Delaware occasionally in considerable numbers, and staying but a short time, or leaving apparently only a few stragglers. ”

“ The majority, being nocturnal, are ill at ease in sunlight, a fact which may explain the apparent discrepancy between their habitual shyness and their bold conduct at the nest or when wounded; many are then positively dangerous, and prove worse adversaries {401}than Falcons or Eagles. In the perpetual day of the Arctic summer the Snowy Owl and the Hawk-Owl (Surnia ulula) cannot of course be nocturnal, while to a limited extent various species of Bubo, Scops, Ninox, Glaucidium, Carine, Nyctala, and Asio may be seen abroad in the hours of light ”

“ Northern North America; wintering regularly south to the northern border of the United States and casually farther.
This is the largest of American Owls, being about 26 inches in length; it does not weigh nearly as much, however, as the Great Horned or Snowy Owls, its plumage being very light and fluffy, and dark gray in color, mottled with white. The facial disc is very large, and the eyes are small and yellow, while those of the Barred Owl are large and blue black. They nest in heavily wooded districts, building their nests of sticks, chiefly in pine trees. ”

“ These two species form about all the attraction to be found to any extent in the fields, and, aside from an occasional hawk, only one more species frequents them, a species that is worth going miles to see—the snowy owl. ”

“ Short-eared Owl, Asio accipitrinus (Pall) .—April 12th and 15th, one each day, past Dudgeon L.V. to W.S.W. One, Spurn, May 25th. In the autumn, at several stations from Teesmouth (Redcar) to Hasborough L.V., from Sept. 5th to Nov. 9th, line of flight from E. to W. or S.E. to N.W. At Redcar numerous occurrences between Sept. 15th and Oct. 26th, with E. and N.E. winds.
Snowy Owl, Nyctea scandiaca (Linn.) .—Mr. T. H. Nelson writes:—"A great White Owl flew up the sands in front of Redcar, 10.30 a.m., Oct. 25th, past a group of fishermen and over the town, going S.W., wind E.N.E. strong." ”