138 BIRDS OF PREY. 



tie Owl to which it is nearly related. This latter kind has a 

 reiterated cry, when flying, like Poopoo poapoo. Another 

 note, which it utters sitting, appears so much like the 

 human voice, calling out alme, heme, edme, that, accord- 

 ing to Buffon, it deceived one of his servants who lodged 

 in one of the old turrets of the castle of Montbard ; and 

 waking him up at 3 o'clock in the morning, with this sin- 

 gular cry, he opened the window and called out, " Who's 

 there below ? my name is not Edme, hut Peter ! " 



The length of the Acadian owl is about 7^ inches, and 18 in alar ex- 

 tent. Above, dark greyish-brown, scattered with spots and points of 

 white. Below, white w^ith large spots of light brown or chesnut; [upon 

 the flanks, in the European adult, transverse spots of the same color.] 

 On the throat and sides of the neck large white spaces. 3 or 4 narrow 

 bands of white on the tail, formed of spots of that color; the prima- 

 ries also crossed obliquely with 5 bars of white. The feet thickly 

 featherd to the toes. The bill dark lead color, approaching black and 

 yellowish at the point, (in Strix Tengmalmi it is yellow.) Iris pale yel- 

 low. 



Note. Prince Bonaparte, in a letter to W. Cooper, Esq. says, he 

 has recently ascertained that this species differs from all the other Eu- 

 ropean small kinds of the genus. 



Subgenus. — Strix. 



Shell of the ear very large, and with the operculum or lid still 

 larger than in the preceding subgenus : disk of feathers round the 

 face much dilated ; the bill lengthened out and curved only at the 

 tip; the legs thickly feathered, and the toes covered with scattered 

 bristles ; the head without any ear-like tufts of feathers. — Habits 

 nocturnal. 



