BARRED OWL. 133 



short flights, and when sitting and looking sharply round, 

 it erects the short ear-like tufts of feathers on the head, 

 which are at other times scarcely visible. Like all other 

 migrating birds, roving indifferently over the country in 

 quest of food alone, they have sometimes been seen in 

 considerable numbers together ; Bewick even remarks, 

 that 28 of them had been counted at once in a turnip- 

 field in England. They are also numerous in Holland 

 in the months of September and October, and in all 

 countries are serviceable for the destruction they make 

 among house and field mice, their only food Although 

 they usually breed in high ground, they have also been 

 observed in Europe to nest in marshes, in the middle of 

 the high herbage, a situation chosen both for safety and 

 solitude. 



The length of this species is from 13 to 15 inches (the latter the 

 length of Wilson's bird, whose extent was 3 feet 4 inches). The 

 head small. Tail ochreous, with brown bands and tipped with white. 

 Beneath isabella yellow, with longitudinal spots of blackish brown. 

 Bill black. Feet and toes feathered. Iris of a bright yellow. 



1 1. With the head destitute of ear-like tufts. 



BARRED OWL. 



{Strix nebulosa,L.ii^. Wilson, iv. p. 61. pi. 33. fig. 2. Philad. Mu- 

 seum, No. 464.) 



Spec. Charact. — Greyish-brown with transverse whitish spots; 

 beneath whitish, neck and breast with transverse bars, the belly 

 and vent with longitudinal stripes of brown ; irids brown ; bill 

 yellow ; the tail extending considerably beyond the tips of the 

 wings. — Female with the scapulars of a dark brown, and the 

 wings more spotted with white. — The young have the tints 

 deeper; and the bill horn-colored. 



This species inhabits the northern regions of both the 

 old and new continent, but with this difference, as in the 

 12 



