417 



SYRNIA PSILODACTYLA. THE BARE-TOED 

 DAY-OWL. 



LITTLE OWL. PASSERINE OWL. 



Chouette Chev^che. Strix passerina. Temm. Man. d'Orn. I. 92. Ill, 49. 

 Little Owl. Noctua nudipes. Gould. Birds of Europe. 

 Little Night-Owl. Strix passerina. Aud. Orn. Biogr. V. 269. 

 Little Night-Owl. Noctua passerina. Selb. lUustr. 107. 

 Noctua passerina. Little Owl. Jen. Brit. Vert. An. 94. 



Toes covered with sha/t-bristles, between which the scales are 

 apparent ; upper par'ts brown, the head with linear-oblong, the 

 neck, bach, and wings with roundish, the tail with four bands 

 of transverse, white spots ; lower parts yellowish-white, with lon- 

 gitudinal brown spots. 



Male. — This species, which has frequently been confound- 

 ed with another of smaller size, and having the toes densely 

 feathered, may be compared to the Jay in bulk, although 

 greatly inferior in weight, and differently proportioned. It has 

 more of the appearance of an Ulula or Hooting-Owl than of 

 a Syrnia or Hawk-Owl. Its ear however corresponds with 

 that of the latter genus, and if its tarsi are a little longer, and 

 less feathered than in it, the difference seems to be of little 

 importance. It is at once distinguishable by having the toes 

 covered with bristles only, from all our Owls, excepting the 

 Screech-Owl, which otherwise has little resemblance to it, 

 and the Scops Owlet, which has tufts on the head. 



The head is very large, the neck short, the wings of mode- 

 rate length, the tail small, the tarsi short, and the toes stout. 

 The upper mandible has its outline curved from the base, the 

 sides convex toward the end, the edges direct, the tip decurv- 

 ed and acute ; the lower mandible has the angle wide, the 

 dorsal line convex, the edges toward the end inflected and de- 



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