404 



SYRNIA FUNEREA. THE HAWK DAY-OWL. 



HAWK-OWL. HUDSON'S BAY OWL. 



Strix canadensis. Briss. Ornith. T. 518. 



Strix funerea. Gmel. Syst. Nat. I. 294. 



Sfrix hudsonia. Gmel. Syst. Nat. I. 295. 



Chouette Caparacoch. Strix funerea. Temm. Man. d'Orn. I. 8G. 



Tail rather long and much rounded ; toes covered with shaggy 

 feathers. Upper parts hrownish-hlack, spotted and barred icith 

 tohite ; lower parts white., narrowly barred with dusky. 



This Owl, which in form makes a considerable approxima- 

 tion to a Falcon, having been met with only once, and that 

 not in any part of Britain, but on the coast, has truly very 

 little claim upon our recognition. That individual not being 

 accessible to me, I shall take my description from North 

 American specimens. 



Male. — The head is very large, roundish, and convex above, 

 the skull having very much the resemblance of that of a Falcon 

 or Hawk, but with the superciliary bones subulate and anchy- 

 losed ; the neck very short ; the body of moderate size. The 

 bill is short and strong, with the upper mandible having the 

 dorsal line declinate and decurvate, the sides convex, the edges 

 nearly straight, the tip decurvate, trigonal, and acute ; the 

 lower mandible with the angle very wide, the dorsal outline 

 convex, the ridge broad, the edges a little inflected toward the 

 end, the tip obtuse. Nostrils roundish ; eyes very large ; aper- 

 ture of ear broadly elliptical, five twelfths of an inch in length, 

 and simple. Legs very short, robust ; tarsus very short, and, 

 with the toes, feathered ; claws long, compressed, well curved, 

 finely pointed, the third with a dilated thin edge. 



Plumage full, very soft, and blended. Cere covered with 

 slender stiffish reversed feathers ; facial disks incomplete above. 



