File:An illustrated manual of British birds (1889) (14561910918).jpg

Identifier: illustratedmanua01saun (find matches)
Title: An illustrated manual of British birds
Year: 1889 (1880s)
Authors: Saunders, Howard, 1835-1907
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: London, Gurney and Jackson
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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found together; they are, like most Owls eggs,white, but rather more elongated than usual : average measure-ments 23 by 175 in. Prof. CoUett says that the female andyoung are fed by the male, which exhibits great boldness and evenferocity when the nesting-place is approached. The food consists oflemmings and other rodents, Arctic hares. Ptarmigan and Willow-Grouse—wounded birds being often picked lip before the sportsmancan reach them ; carrion is also eaten, and the bird is an expertcatcher of fish. Its own flesh is highly esteemed by the inhabitantsof the Arctic regions. The cry is a loud and repeated krau-au. The plumage of the Snowy Owl is white, barred and spotted withan amount of black or dark brown which varies greatly in differentindividuals ; it is said that the female is more profusely markedthan the male, and she is certainly much larger. Small but almostinvisible tufts exist; there is no operculum ; bill black ; iris orange-yellow. Length from 22 to 27 in. STRIGID.^. 295
Text Appearing After Image:
THE HAWK-OWL. SuRNiA FUNKREA (Liniiceus). An example of this rare wanderer to Great Britain was taken inan exhausted state off the coast of Cornwall in March 1830; asecond was shot near Yatton, in Somersetshire, while hawking forprey on a sunny afternoon in August 1847 ; a third on Unst, in theShetland Islands, in the winter of 1860-61 ; a fourth near Glasgowin December 1863 ; and a fifth near Greenock in November 1868.Of the above, I believe that all which are now available for criticalexamination belong to the North American form—distinguished bytrinomialists in the United States as 6. tdnla caparoch—-in which thedark transverse bands of the under parts are more ruddy than in theEuropean, and the white on the upper parts is rather more pro-nounced. There can be little doubt that the American visitors hadreceived aid from vessels for Bristol and the Clyde ; a genuineexample of the European form has, however, been obtained nearAmesbury, Wilts, and identified by Mr. R. B. Sharpe (P

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