Note 42 — First, Of Birds.[34]

The first is the great-horned or cat-owl; the second, probably, the mottled or little screech-owl, which Wood notices more fully as “small, speckled like a partridge, with ears” (l. c.); and the third, the Acadian or little owl. There are but two owls reckoned in New-England’s Prospect; the second of which—“a great owl, almost as big as an eagle; his body being as good meat as a partridge” (l. c.)—is, perhaps, the snowy owl, which, according to Audubon, is good eating.—Peabody Report on Birds of Mass., p. 275.