. A history of British birds . ch extendingfrom the ears downwards ; head, back of the neck, and upperpart of the shoulders, mottled with dusky black and dullwhite ; back and wings dark umber-brown ; lower part ofthe back barred with dull white; tertials elongated, loose,and downy, covering great part of the wing, and barredalternately with dusky brown and white ; tail above duskybrown, with six or seven narrow bars and a broader terminalband of dull white. Chin dusky; throat and a band acrossthe upper part of the breast dull white ; breast, belly, andunder tail-coverts, dull white, with numer
. A history of British birds . ch extendingfrom the ears downwards ; head, back of the neck, and upperpart of the shoulders, mottled with dusky black and dullwhite ; back and wings dark umber-brown ; lower part ofthe back barred with dull white; tertials elongated, loose,and downy, covering great part of the wing, and barredalternately with dusky brown and white ; tail above duskybrown, with six or seven narrow bars and a broader terminalband of dull white. Chin dusky; throat and a band acrossthe upper part of the breast dull white ; breast, belly, andunder tail-coverts, dull white, with numerous narrow bars ofdusky brown; tail beneath barred alternately with greyish-brown and dull white ; feathers of the tarsi and toes greyish-white ; claws white at the base, tipped with bluish-black. The whole length of the bird is about seventeen inches,the female being somewhat larger than the male. This species has been much confounded by nomenclatorswith Tengmalms and the Short-eared Owl. ACCIPITRES. SNOWY f)W[, 187STRIGIDJ:.. Nyctea scandiaca (Linnaeus*)THE SNOWY OWL. Surnia nijctcai. Nyctea, StephensX.—Beak decurved from the Viasc ; nostrils large, oval; cereshort; upper mandible smooth, lower mandible notched. Facial disk of the ears moderate, without operculum. Wings of moderate size ; thethird quill-feather the longest, second and fourth nearly equal. Tail roundedand of moderate length. Legs and toes thickly covered with feathers. Headlarge, round, not furnished with tufts of feathers. This beautiful species was first ascertained to occur in * Strix scandiaca, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 132 (176G). f St7-ix nyctea, Linnaeus (loc. cit.) . X General Zoology, xiii. part li. p. 62 (1820). 188 ^, Britain by the late Dr. Edmonston, who, early in the presentcentury, as he informed Macgillivray, found one hung up asa scarecrow in the Shetland Islands.* He next saw one inthe isle of Unst, which a few days afterwards he shot; and,in 1812, prese
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsaun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds
