Audubon's Birds/BIRDSVER1_3.BIN/dp/0004/00044.txt

Text File | 1992-08-27 | 10KB | 164 lines

$Unique_ID{BRD00044}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{The Snowy Owl}
$Subject{Striginae; Surnia; Nyctea; nyctea; scandiaca; The Snowy Owl}
$Journal{Birds of America:  Volume I}
$Volume{Vol. 1:113-116}
$Family{Striginae}
$Genus{Surnia; Nyctea}
$Species{nyctea; scandiaca}
$Common_Name{The Snowy Owl}
$Log{
Plate XXVIII*00044p1.scf
Family*00041.txt
Genus*00042.txt
}

       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       B I R D S   O F   A M E R I C A .

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

                   ------------------------------------------
                                    VOL. I.
                        --------------------------------


                                 THE SNOWY OWL.
                                  [Snowy Owl.]


                              SURNIA NYCTEA, Linn.
                              [Nyctea scandiaca.]


                        PLATE XXVIII.--MALE AND FEMALE.


     This beautiful bird is merely a winter visitor of the United States, where
it is seldom seen before the month of November, and whence it retires as early
as the beginning of February.  It wanders at times along the sea coast, as far
as Georgia.  I have occasionally seen it in the lower parts of Kentucky, and in
the State of Ohio.  It is more frequently met with in Pennsylvania and the
Jerseys; but in Massachusetts and Maine it is far more abundant than in any
other parts of the Union.
     The Snowy Owl hunts during the day, as well as in the dusk.  Its flight is
firm and protracted, although smooth and noiseless.  It passes swiftly over its
hunting ground, seizes its prey by instantaneously falling on it, and generally
devours it on the spot.  When the objects of its pursuit are on wing, such as
ducks, grouse, or pigeons, it gains upon them by urging its speed, and strikes
them somewhat in the manner of the Peregrine Falcon.  It is fond of the
neighbourhood of rivers and small streams, having in their course cataracts or
shallow rapids, on the borders of which it seizes on fishes, in the manner of
our wild cat.  It also watches the traps set for musk-rats, and devours the
animals caught in them.  Its usual food, while it remains with us, consists of
hares, squirrels, rats, and fishes, portions of all of which I have found in its
stomach.  In several fine specimens which I examined immediately after being
killed, I found the stomach to be extremely thin, soft, and capable of great
extension.  In one of them I found the whole of a large house-rat, in pieces of
considerable size, the head and the tail almost entire.  This bird was very fat,
and its intestines, which were thin, and so small as not to exceed a fourth of
an inch in diameter, measured 4 1/2 feet in length.
     When skinned, the body of the Snowy Owl appears at first sight compact and
very muscular, for the breast is large, as are the thighs and legs, these parts
being covered with much flesh of a fine and delicate appearance, very much
resembling that of a chicken, and not disagreeable eating, but the thorax is
very narrow for so large a bird.  The keel of the breast-bone is fully an inch
deep at its junction with the fourchette, which is wide.  The heart and liver
are large; the oesophagus is extremely wide, enabling the bird to swallow very
large portions of its food at once.  The skin may be drawn over the head without
any difficulty, and from the body with ease.  The male weighs 4 lbs., the female
4 3/4 lbs., avoirdupois.
     The observations which I have made induce me to believe that the pure and
rich light yellowish whiteness of this species belongs to both sexes after a
certain age.  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.  This, indeed, led
me to think that, when young, these birds are brown.  Others were more or less
marked with broad transverse lines of deep brown or black; but I have seen
specimens of both sexes perfectly free from spots, excepting on the occiput,
where I have never missed them.
     Scarcely is there a winter which does not bring several of these hardy
natives of the north to the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville.  At the break of
day, one morning, when I lay hidden in a pile of drift logs, at that place,
waiting for a shot at some wild geese, I had an opportunity of seeing this Owl
secure fish in the following manner:--While watching for their prey on the
borders of the "pots," they invariably lay flat on the rock, with the body
placed lengthwise along the border of the hole, the head also laid down, but
turned towards the water.  One might have supposed the bird sound asleep, as it
would remain in the same position until a good opportunity of securing a fish
occurred, which I believe was never missed; for, as the latter unwittingly rose
to the surface, near the edge, that instant the Owl thrust out the foot next the
water, and, with the quickness of lightning, seized it, and drew it out.  The
Owl then removed to the distance of a few yards, devoured his prey, and returned
to the same hole; or, if it had not perceived any more fish, flew only a few
yards over the many pots there, marked one, and alighted at a little distance
from it.  It then squatted, moved slowly towards the edge, and lay as before
watching for an opportunity.  Whenever a fish of any size was hooked, as I may
say, the Owl struck the other foot also into it, and flew off with it to a
considerable distance.  In two instances of this kind, I saw the bird carry its
prey across the Western or Indiana Shute, into the woods, as if to be quite out
of harm's way.  I never heard it utter a single note on such occasions, even
when two birds joined in the repast, which was frequently the case. when the
fish that had been caught was of a large size.  At sunrise, or shortly after,
the Owls flew to the woods, and I did not see them until the next morning, when,
after witnessing the same feats, I watched an opportunity, and killed both at
one shot.
     An old hunter, now residing in Maine, told me that one winter he lost so
many musk-rats by the Owls, that he resolved to destroy them.  To effect this,
without loss of ammunition, a great object to him, he placed musk-rats caught in
the traps usually employed for the purpose, in a prominent spot, and in the
centre of a larger trap.  He said he seldom failed, and in this manner
considerably "thinned the thieves," before the season was over.  He found,
however, more of the Great Grey Owl, Strix cinerea, than of the Snowy Owl.  The
latter he thought was much more cunning than the former.
     In the course of a winter spent at Boston, I had some superb specimens of
the Snowy Owl brought to me, one of which, a male, was alive, having only been
touched in the wing.  He stood upright, keeping his feathers close, but would
not suffer me to approach him.  His fine eyes watched every movement I made, and
if I attempted to walk round him, the instant his head had turned as far as he
could still see me, he would open his wings, and with large hops get to a corner
of the room, when he would turn towards me, and again watch my approach.  This
bird had been procured on one of the sea-islands off Boston, by a gunner in my
employ, who, after following it from one rock to another, with difficulty
wounded it.  In the course of the same winter, I saw one sailing high over the
bay along with a number of gulls, which appeared to dislike his company, and
chased him at a respectful distance, the owl seeming to pay no regard to them.
     Several individuals have been procured in South Carolina, one on James'
Island, another, now in the Charleston Museum, on Clarkson's plantation, and a
fine one was shot at Columbia, the seat of government, from the chimney of one
of the largest houses in that town, and was beautifully preserved by Professor
Gibbes of the Columbia College.  I once met with one while walking with a friend