GREAT GREY OR CINEREOUS OWL. 129 



it is able to carry off the alpine hare alive in its tal- 

 ons. In Europe, the species appears wholly confined to 

 the desert regions of Lapland ; two or three stragglers 

 being all that have been obtained out of that country by 

 naturalists. Pennant adds, that it constructs its nest in 

 a pine tree about the middle of May, with a few sticks, 

 and lines it with feathers ; the eggs are 2, and spotted 

 with a darkish color. The young take to wing about the 

 close of July. 



The male of this species is 2 feet one or two inches in length, in 

 alar extent 4, and weighs about 3 pounds. The irids are yellow. 

 Bill pale yellow, almost hid in the feathersof the face. From the 

 breast to the vent there is said to be a space about an inch in 

 breadth bare of feathers (whether this is constant or accidental we 

 have yet to learn). Disks of the face dark grey, edged with black, 

 and about 9 in number. Feathers round the inner angle of the eye 

 and bill black. A whitish space immediately under the chin /border- 

 ed below by dusky feathers. Head, hind part of the neck, back, and 

 coverts of the wings, brownish sooty black, mottled or curdled with 

 dirtv vrhite. The primaries dusky, inclining to white on tiieir edgeg, 

 with broad bars, composed of dusky and pale cinereous stripes ; each 

 pale bar, being bordered on either side with a dusky one. Tail 

 wedge-formed, extending nearly 3 inches beyond the points of the 

 closed wings, irregularly marked with oblique or zigzag strokes of 

 brown and muddy white, and barred in the manner of the wings with 

 5 or 6 pale stripes ; the middle feather without bars and covered 

 with zigzags. The breast, belly, and rump cinereous white, cover- 

 ed with large oblong, partly arrow-shaped, blotches of pale dusky 

 brown, becoming narrower and longitudinal towards the vent. The 

 legs feathered to the feet, dark cinereous, and without either the 

 spots or bars (said to exist in S. lapponica). Claws black and mod- 

 erate. — The /emaZe has probably (as described by Bonaparte) the 

 face whitish, with black circlets. 



Subgenus. — Ulula. 



The shell of the ear very large, extending semicircularly from the 

 bill to the top of the head, closed with a membranaceous operculum ; 



