Great Snow Owl

“The owl is a popular name for any nocturnal, raptorial bird, of which about 200 species are known. Their classification is in a very unsettled state. Willoughby’s division into two sections– one having ‘ears’ or ‘horns,’ as the tufts of feathers on their heads were called, the other destitute of such appendages– was shown to be unnatural by Geoffroy St. Hilaire. The prevailing color of the plumage is brown, with a tinge of rusty-red, and it is exceedingly loose and soft, so that their flight (even in the larger species) is almost noiseless, enabling them to swoop upon their prey, which they hunt in the twilight. All owls cast up in the form of pellets the indigestible parts of the food swallowed. These castings may be seen under any owl-roost, and show plainly the great service these birds render to man in destroying rats and mice. They range over the whole globe."—(Charles Leonard-Stuart, 1911)

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