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![Snowy Owl [Havell] Pl. 121](/pictures/03645-1.jpg)
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AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851)
Snowy Owl [Pl. 121]
[Pl. 121]. Hand-coloured engraving with aquatint and etching by Robert Havell, [no date], paper watermarked "Turkey Mill". Sheet size: 37 5/8 x 24 1/8 inches.
From the first edition of "The Birds of America."
One of the most evocative of all Audubon's images: the eerie paleness of the birds contrasting beautifully with the rich dark blue of the night sky.
"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 objects of its pursuit are on wing [sic]...it gains upon them by urging its speed, and strikes them somewhat in the manner of a 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" (J. J. Audubon, The Birds of America, New York & Philadelphia: 1840-1844, vol.I, p.113). "At home in the far North, the snowy owl sits upon its hillock, surveys it bleak domain, and intones its baleful booming to the polar sky. It has few enemies, chiefly the arctic fox and the Eskimos, who find the eggs of the Ookpikjuak very palatable. The key to life in the Arctic is the lemming, the little mouse-like mammal that increases so rapidly even its natural enemies cannot keep it in check. Periodically, when it reaches saturation, there is a population crash. In peak years, the snowy owl waxes fat on the lemming horde, but when the depression comes it must leave the barren tundra and seek food elsewhere. About every fourth year flights of these big ghostly owls drift into the United States; at longer intervals invasions of thousands pour across the border" (R. T & V. M. Peterson, Audubon's Birds of America, London: 1981, no. 237).
Susanne M. Low, A Guide to Audubon's Birds of America, New Haven & New York: 2002, p.93.
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#3645 $125,000.00 
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