130 BIRDS OF PREY. 



and with the disk of slender feathers round the face well marked 

 and complete. The feet thickly covered to the claws with short 

 feathers. (The habits chiefly nocturnal.) 



t With the head tufted with ear-like appendages. 

 LONG-EARED OWL. 



(Strix otus, Lin. Wilson, vi. p. 73. pi. 51. fig. 3. Philad. Museum, 



No. 434.) 



Spec Charact. — Mottled; primaries banded with ferruginous ; 

 ear-tufts, long, of about 6 feathers ; wings extending to the tip of 

 the tail. 



This species, like several others of the genus, appears 

 to be almost a denizen of the world, being found from 

 Hudson's Bay to the West Indies, throughout Europe, 

 in Africa, northern Asia, and probably China, in all 

 which countries it appears to be resident ; but seems 

 more abundant in certain places in winter, following rats 

 and mice to their retreats in or near houses and barns. 

 They commonly lodge in ruined buildings, the caverns 

 of rocks, or in hollow trees. It defends itself with great 

 spirit from the attacks of larger birds, making a ready 

 use of its bill and talons, and when wounded is danger- 

 ous and resolute. 



The Long-Eared Owl seldom, if ever, takes the trou- 

 ble to construct a nest of its own ; it seeks shelter amidst 

 ruins, and in the accidental hollows of trees, and rests 

 content with the dilapidated nursery of the Crow, the 

 Magpye, that of the Wild Pigeon, of the Buzzard, or 

 even the tufted retreat of the squirrel. True to these 

 habits, Wilson found one of these Owls sitting on her 

 eggs in the deserted nest of the Q,ua-bird, on the 25th of 

 April, near Philadelphia, in the midst of the gloomy en- 

 swamped forest which formed the usual resort of these 

 solitary Herons. So well satisfied was she in fact with 



