Some Exotic Owls 



mice, is certainly well suited to take their place, 

 for New Zealand is overrun with rats. 



Striking as are the variations in the plumage of 

 the barn-owls, they are excelled by that which is 

 shown in the rare Ural owl {Syrnium uralense), of 

 which specimens are now in the Gardens. One 

 of these is the normal colour, a pretty variegated 

 grey ; but the others are little niggers, being of a 

 peculiar uniform sooty colour which gives them 

 a most impish appearance. It would be very 

 interesting to know if the different colours of owls 

 go along with different dispositions. This is cer- 

 tainly the case with some animals, for it is well 

 known that the black variety of the leopard is a 

 much more savage beast than the ordinary spotted 

 kind, and the same is said to be the case with the 

 black jaguar. 



The Scops owls are quite little creatures, but 

 they bear feathery " horns " like the great eagle- 

 owls. The use of the horns in the little Scops is 

 undoubtedly to increase the resemblance to a dead 

 and broken stump of a bough which his stiff atti- 

 tude and beautifully freckled grey plumage give 

 him, for they are kept erect so as to look like bits 

 of the broken wood. But in this case it is not so 

 easy to see how a chestnut variety, which often 

 occurs, gets on, unless attitude counts for more 

 than colour in this protective position. 



The most familiar of all owls, in all countries 



*35 



