. The illustrated natural history [microform]. Birds; Natural history; Oiseaux; Sciences naturelles. SXOWY OWL.—Xj/dca ii'ca. ii^; The general colour of this bird is dark spotted brown above and striped white below, arranged briefly as follows. The top of the head and back is brown, covered with white spots, the spots disappearing at tlie insertion of the wings, where a large patch of very dark brown is placed. The outer »dge of the concha is jetty black, and its inner surface is greyish-white. The tliroat is also white, and the chest and abdomen are of the same tint, marked with a number of i
. The illustrated natural history [microform]. Birds; Natural history; Oiseaux; Sciences naturelles. SXOWY OWL.—Xj/dca ii'ca. ii^; The general colour of this bird is dark spotted brown above and striped white below, arranged briefly as follows. The top of the head and back is brown, covered with white spots, the spots disappearing at tlie insertion of the wings, where a large patch of very dark brown is placed. The outer »dge of the concha is jetty black, and its inner surface is greyish-white. The tliroat is also white, and the chest and abdomen are of the same tint, marked with a number of irregular stripes of ashen-brown. The tail is brown, covered with a few narrow intercepted black bands. The legs are feathered as iar as the claws, and the bill is yellow Avith a few spots of black. These colours are slightly variable in individuals, owing most probably to the difference of age, and in the female they are not so bright as in her mate. The Snowy Oavl is one of the handsomest of this group, not so much on account of its dimensions, which are not very considerable, but by reason of the beautiful Mliite mantle with which it is clothed, and the large orange eyeballs that shine with a lustre as of a living topaz set among the snowy plumage. This bird is properly a native of the north of Europe and America, but has also a few domains in the more northern parts of England, being constantly seen, though ratlier a scarce bird, in the Shetland and Orkney Islands, where it builds and rears its young. Like the Hawk Owl, it is a day-flying bird, and is a terrible foe to the smaller mammalia, aud to various birds. Mr. Yarrell, in his well-known History of the British Birds, remarks that " one wounded on the Isle of Balta disgorged a young rabbit whole ; and that one in my possession had in its stomach a young sandpiper with its plumage ; It is rather remarkable that the bird should have thus been swallowed whole, as I have always remarked that when an Owl d
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