Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/124

 ing on the body just before the carpal joint of the wing. The supposed females which are much larger than the last mentioned, differ exceedingly from it in mark- ings. 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 Labra- dor 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.

f See Naturalist's Library : Brit. Birds, Part I. p. 307.