76 Dr. A. Hall on the Mammals and Birds 



parts; wing linings and tail coverts dead white, with imperfect 

 brown marks ; wings and tail slate colour, with white spots cor- 

 responding to those on the upper surface; femorals and tarsals 

 yellow white, with dark brown bars, the tarsals continued to 

 toes as far as the insertion of the talons. 



3rd primary longest ; 2nd, 4th and 5th subequal ; 1st and Yth 

 equal ; outer barb of the 1st primary revolute ; tail square. 

 Length 12 inches ; alar breadth 20 inches. 



Eichardson refers the S. Passerina to the S. Tenpmalmi, on 

 no other grounds than a similarity in the plumage of the head. 

 The two birds, however, are totally distinct ; the S. Passerina 

 not only being much smaller than the S. Tengmalmi, but differs 

 also from it in its ventral plumage, which is wholly brown, and 

 moreover, has but three white bars on the tail, whereas the S. 

 Tengmalmi has five. A greater difficulty, however, occurs in the 

 distinctive characters between the S. Balhousii, S. Passerina^ and 

 >S^. Acadica^ which resemble one another in nearly all their essen- 

 tial points. Might not the trifling varieties which are found to 

 exist between them be the result of ao-e ? Nuttal refers the 

 S» Passerina to the S. Acadica, to which I feel also much in- 

 clined to refer the S, Dalhousii. A degree of uncertainty, how- 

 ever, at the best, hangs over these species, which it would require 

 a comparative examination of numerous specimens of different 

 ages and sexes to clear up. The two following species agree 

 with the plates of the respective birds, as figured in Wilson and 

 Buonaparte's splendid work. The descriptions of both of them 

 are taken from prepared specimens, shot in the vicinity of Mon- 

 treal in 1837. 



S. Acadica. Acadian owl. , 



S. passerina ? Wilson ! 



S. Dalhousii? Audubon! 



S. Acadica of Bonaparte ; 



Nyctale Acadica, Gmelin 1 Bonap. ! Baird ! 

 v.s.p. Bill and claws black ; the former tipped with white at 

 the apex of the upper mandible ; irides pale yellow. 



Dorsal aspect. Facial disk, white superiorly, and black ante- 

 riorly and posteriorly, with a few white feathers inferiorly ; bounded 

 posteriorly by brown feathers, tipped with white, forming a line 

 which meets immediately below the chin ; frontlet yellowish 

 white ; crown and nape of neck liver brown, (which is the pre- 

 vailing dorsal tint) with indications of, or imperfect, white streaks 



