lished respecting Irish specimens, nothing is now to be added. -I can only bring together what has before appeared. On June 9, 1835, I had the satisfaction of communicating the first notice of the occurrence of the snowy owl in Ireland to the Zoological Society of London, in whose Proceedings, (1835, p. 78,) it was subsequently published. About the 26th of March, 1835, a specimen of this bird was sent in a recent state to Dr. Adams of Portglenone, county of Antrim, by a person who had shot it a few days before in that neighbourhood, and who stated that a similar individual had been seen about the place where it was obtained. The specimen was presented by Dr. Adams to the Natural History Society of Belfast. It was immature, agreeing with the figure in Mr. Selby's Illustrations of British Ornithology. On the 21st of the same month, as two of my friends were snipe-shooting at Bruslee, about twenty miles to the south-east of Portglenone, a large white owl, represented by them as twice the size of the common species of that colour (Strix flammea), rose from the heath within a few yards of one of them, just as he had discharged both barrels at a snipe. His companion fired at it from such a distance, that although struck, it escaped with the loss of only a few feathers, and afterwards alighted a short way off. On showing the specimen killed at Portglenone to one of these gentlemen, he recognised it as similar in size and colour to the bird which he had seen. In Dublin, I subsequently saw a snowy owl, which had been shot in the county of Mayo, also in the month of March, and was credibly informed that a few others were obtained about the same tleman, then rose at about forty yards distance, and flew towards him, when it was fired at, but sailed away apparently unhurt. It was, however, soon afterwards brought to him by a boy who had seen it fall; and excepting a flesh wound in the muscle of one wing, was quite uninjured. It was kept in confinement for a considerable time, and eventually killed by a servant for making too free with some chickens. In the Fauna of Cork, published in 1845, it is stated that "an individual of this species was twice fired at by Richard D. Parker, Esq., of Sunday's Well, on Inchigeela mountain, in 1827, but was not procured." To make sure that there was not a typographical error in the year,—that 1827 was not substituted for 1837,—I wrote to the author, and learned that it was correctly printed. The bird was seen in the month of September. time in different parts of Ireland. One may be mentioned as having been received from the county of Longford, on the 5th of April, by a bird-preserver in Dublin. When in that city, in the spring of 1838, I saw, in the possession of Edward Waller, Esq., a very fine specimen of the snowy owl, said to have been shot about three years before that time, near Omagh, in the county of Tyrone. There can be little doubt that this bird was of the same "flight" as the others. I was pleased to hear from Dr. P. Neill of Edinburgh, in August, 1835, that he had received a snowy owl alive, in the spring of that year, from Orkney, where it was captured at the end of March. Dr. Neill has contributed a very interesting account of this individual to Sir William Jardine's History of British Birds, vol. i. p. 307. It is there said to have been taken in the middle of April. On the 2nd of December, 1837, a beautiful specimen of the snowy owl was shot in a quarry on Scrabo mountain, in the county of Down, and came into the possession of Thomas M'Leroth, Esq., of Killinether House, in that neighbourhood, who liberally presented it to the Belfast Museum. Having come under my inspection in a recent state, I drew up the following description of this bird, which differs in some particulars from other specimens described in detail.* On that account, and for the purpose of comparison with individuals noticed in the sequel, it is here Extent of wings 4 feet 9 inches; first quill 14 inch shorter than the second, which is about 2 lines shorter than the third, this being the longest; the fourth is about 2 lines shorter than the second; the fifth 2 lines less than the first in length; this relative proportion of the quills is the same in the specimen from Portglenone, preserved in the Belfast Museum. Colour of forehead, throat, and upper portion of breast, lower part of belly, under tail-coverts, under side of wings (except the roundish spots towards the points of primaries, secondaries, and tertials), and entire legs, white. Plumage of the body beneath the wings, lower part of breast, and upper portion of belly, white, beautifully barred with blackish-brown in waved and variously formed lines about half an inch apart, and becoming narrow as they approach the tail; the greatest breadth of these dark bars about 1 line. Feathers of the occiput white, tipped with black; lower part of nape where the head joins the body, white; back, scapulars, and coverts of the wings, white, closely barred with blackish brown. Primaries, secondaries, and tertials (which, as to colouring, cannot well be separated in description, blending as they do into each other), at first darkly barred on both outer and inner webs towards the tips, but gradually becoming less so towards the centre (secondaries generally), where three or four round spots appear on the outer web only; thence the spots become more numerous, and towards the body (tertials) the bars again appear on both webs, thus, in the markings, balancing the primaries on the opposite side; upper tail coverts with narrow bars of blackish brown. Tail feathers twelve in number, the two outer ones pure white, third and fourth with two broad bars of dark blackish brown near the tip, fifth and sixth with three bars of the same colour. Irides, golden yellow. Weight 34 lbs. This bird was fat, and in high condition. On dissection, it proved a male; its stomach was quite empty. In a letter, dated Twizell House, July 21, 1838, I was informed by P. J. Selby, Esq., that he had received a snowy owl from Killibegs, county of Donegal, near which place it was shot in the month of November or December, 1837. This is the same individual which appears from the "First Annual Report of the Natural History Society of Dublin," p. 6, to have been announced at one of the meetings as an eagle owl (Bubo maximus): it is almost unnecessary to add, that the gentleman who made the announcement had not the opportunity of seeing the specimen, but judged merely from the description communicated to him. The fact is mentioned here merely to guard against future error. On young birds brought alive from North America. In the month of October, 1837, Richard Langtry, Esq., of Fort William, near Belfast, received three living specimens of the snowy owl, which were taken in the previous month of August, from a nest in the vicinity of the Moravian settlement, on the coast of Labrador. He had commissioned a person to procure for him there, living specimens of the gyr falcon, for which the owls were mistaken. In the preceding year, peregrine falcons were brought to him thence by mistake for gyr falcons. The white colour of the owls, however, led the person commissioned to procure the hawks, to believe that he had at last obtained the wished-for objects. These nestlings were at the time covered only with down, and were so young that it was at first feared they would not survive until the arrival of the vessel in London. Due care was, however, taken of them, upwards of 700 mice, procured Esquimaux for the occasion, were stowed in the vessel for their support; when these were consumed, reindeers' flesh was given them; and when the vessel came near soundings, they were supplied with sea-gulls caught upon baited hooks. An examination of these individuals has enabled me to correct an error which appears in some of the best ornithological works respecting the plumage of the snowy owl in the first year. This error seems, in part at least, to have originated with Bullock, who states (but not from personal observation), that the young birds which are seen in the Shetland Islands flying about with their parents, are brown at the end of summer. Temminck also remarks, that "les jeunes, au sortir du nid, sont couverts d'un duvet brun; les premières plumes sont aussi d'un brun clair."* Audubon observes, "I have shot specimens, which were, as I thought, so young as to be nearly of a uniform light-brown tint, and which puzzled me for several years, as I had at first conceived them to be of a different species."+ On arrival, when they were in good condition, the birds under consideration were as follows: One, much smaller than the others, and presumed to be a male, was considerably whiter than the specimen shot in a wild state, whose plumage has just been described, but displayed two markings which the other does not possess; the back of the head, where it joins the body, being blackish-brown, and another patch of this colour appear * Man. Orn. tom. i. p. 82. Orn. Biog. vol. ii. p. 136; where a highly interesting account of the snowy owl's mode of fishing, as witnessed by the author at the Falls of the Ohio, will be found. ing on the body just before the carpal joint of the wing. The supposed fema les which are much larger than the last mentioned, differ exceedingly from it in markings. They have the facial plumage, or that within the disk, the throat, body beneath the wings, under surface of the latter, the legs and toes, pure white. The head to the disk posteriorly, back, upper side of wings, and whole plumage between the folded wings, present as much of a blackish-brown colour as of white, the former being disposed in the same manner as described in the specimen from Scrabo; but the bars and other dark markings are so broad as to occupy equal space with the white or "ground" colour. As immature, and more especially young birds of the year, often wander farther from their native domicile, than those which have attained maturity, it hitherto appeared singular to me, that none of the specimens of the snowy owl obtained in so southern a limit of their flight as England and Ireland, should be in the garb described as assumed previous to the first moult. The plumage of these Labrador birds, however, satisfied me, that the young of the snowy owl, like the immature individuals of many other species, do scatter themselves more widely than the adults. The bird shot at Scrabo was, I have no doubt, a nestling in the summer of 1837. The individual figured by Mr. Selby* is also less white than Mr. Langtry's male bird, and if belonging to the same sex, I should consider it a bird of the first year. Of two other individuals, male and female, recorded by Mr. Selby to have been killed in Northumberland, in 1823, the latter was, from the number of black bars and spots, considered by that gentleman to be a young bird, but no opinion on the age of the male is offered; he is, however, stated to have been much whiter than the female, a circumstance which, as we have seen, does not militate against his also being a young bird of the year. Of the other specimens killed in England, I have not seen such detailed descriptions as enable me to judge of their age from comparison with the Labrador birds; nor, in consequence of its sex being unknown, can a satisfactory opinion be offered on the first snowy owl recorded to have been obtained in Ireland. (Zool. Proc. 1835, p. 78.) Were the sex of the individuals known, we should probably find that the * Ill. Brit. Orn. pl. 23. + See Naturalist's Library: Brit. Birds, Part I. p. 307. |