File:A popular handbook of the birds of the United States and Canada (1903) (14729192146).jpg

Identifier: popularhandbook00nutt (find matches)
Title: A popular handbook of the birds of the United States and Canada
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Nuttall, Thomas, 1786-1859 Chamberlain, Montague, 1844-1924
Subjects: Birds -- North America
Publisher: Boston, Little, Brown
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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er birds, sometimes even attending the hunterlike a Falcon, and boldly taking up the wounded game as it 54 BIRDS OF PREY. flutters on the ground. They are also said to feed on miceand insects, and (according to Meyer) they nest upon trees,laying two white eggs. They are said to be constant atten-dants on the Ptarmigans in their spring migrations towards theNorth, and are observed to hover round the camp-fires of thenatives, in quest probably of any offal or rejected game. In Massachusetts and the more southern portions of New Eng-land the Hawk Owl is only an occasional winter visitor; but innorthern New England and the Maritime Provinces it occurs regu-larly, though of varying abundance, in some seasons being quiterare. It is fairly common near Montreal, and rare in Ontario andin Ohio. Thompson reports it abundant in Manitoba, but onlyone example has been taken in Illinois (Ridgway). It breeds inNewfoundland, the Magdalen Islands, and northern Manitoba,and north to sub-arctic regions.
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SNOWY OWL. Nyctea nyctea. Char. General color pure white, with markings of dull brown orbrownish black, the abundance and shade of the spots varying with age.A large, stout bird. Length 23 to 27 inches. Nest. On the ground, of twigs and grass, lined with feathers. EgS^ 5 to 10; white; 2.55 X 190. This very large and often snow-white species of Owl isalmost an exclusive inhabitant of the Arctic regions of bothcontinents, being common in Iceland, the Shetland Islands,Kamtschatka, Lapland, and Hudsons Bay. In these drearywilds, surrounded by an almost perpetual winter, he dwells,breeds, and obtains his subsistence. His white robe renders 56 BIRDS OF PREY. him scarcely discernible from the overwhelming snows, wherehe reigns, like the boreal spirit of the storm. His loud, hol-low, barking growl, ivhowh, whowh, whowh hah, hah, hah,hdh^ and other more dismal cries, sound like the unearthly-ban of Cerberus; and heard amidst a region of cheerless soli-tude, his lonely and terrific voice augmen

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