454 ASIO OTUS, 



Male. — This Owl, which is one of our most common spe- 

 cies, is readily distinguishable by the elongated tufts of feathers 

 on its head, taken in connection with its size, which is about 

 that of the Barn or White Owl, and the minutely mottled co- 

 louring of its upper parts. Although apparently robust, owing 

 to the great bulk of its plumage, its body is but small and its 

 neck slender. The head is very large and somewhat triangular ; 

 the bill short, of moderate strength, and considerably com- 

 pressed ; the upper mandible with its dorsal outline decurved 

 from the base, its sides rapidly sloping and but little convex, 

 its edges covered with skin, continuous with that of the palate, 

 as far as the nostrils, then direct, sharp, and decurved ; the tip 

 acute and deflected ; the lower mandible with its crura narrow 

 and flexible, the angle elongated, the dorsal line slightly con- 

 vex, the edges inflected, the tip abruptly rounded, with a sinus 

 on each side. 



The mouth is very wide, measuring an inch and a twelfth 

 across ; the palate flat, with two longitudinal ridges, and the 

 sides sloping upwards. The aperture of the posterior nares 

 oblong, with an anterior fissure. The tongue is small, narrow, 

 seven-twelfths long, sagittate and papillate at the base, its tip 

 thin and bifid. The oesophagus is five inches and a quarter 

 long, of nearly uniform width, measuring about an inch across 

 when inflated. The proventricular glandules, which are large 

 and very distinct, form a belt three-fourths of an inch in 

 breadth. The stomach is large, thin, round, a little flattened, 

 an inch and three-fourths in diameter ; the fibres of its muscu- 

 lar coat rather coarse, the tendinous spaces circular, and about 

 half an inch in diameter ; the epithelium soft and rugous. The 

 intestine measures twenty-two inches in length, from three- 

 twelfths to a twelfth and a half in width ; but in the rectum, 

 which is two and a half inches long, becomes wider, and ex- 

 pands into an extremely large ovate cloaca, an inch in width. 

 The coeca are two inches and three-fourths in length, for an 

 inch and a half only one-twelfth in width, then enlarging into 

 an oblong sac, of which the greatest breadth is half an inch. 



The nostrils are large, oblique, oblong, in the fore part of 

 the cere, and having internally a ridge curved backwards from 



