94 Allen's naturalist's library. 



appear to be absent in West Africa, the Malayan Sub-region, 

 Australia, and Oceania, though a species occurs in the Sand- 

 wich Islands and another in the Galapagos Islands. 



I. THE LONG-EARED OWL. ASIO OTUS. 



Strix otus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 491 (1766); Seebohm, Br. 



B. i. p. 160 (1883). 

 Asio otus, Macg. Br. B. iii. p. 453 (1840) ; Newt. ed. Yarr. 



Brit. B. i. p. 158 (1872); Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. ii. 



p. 227 (1875); Dresser, B. Eur. p. 251, pi. 303 (1876); 



B. O. U. List Br. B. p. 86 (1883) ; Saunders, Man. Br. 



B. p. 283 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Br. B. part xxiii. 



(1893)- 

 Adult Male.— Blackish-brown above, mottled all over with 

 orange-buff; all the dorsal plumes silvered with white, with 

 vermiculations of dark brown; scapulars and greater wing- 

 coverts with a large oval spot of white on the outer web ; quills 

 greyish-brown, with hoary tips, barred with darker brown, 

 more broadly on the primaries, which have the interspaces 

 orange-buff, the dark bars more broken up on the secondaries ; 

 tail-feathers greyish-brown, with orange-buff at the base, and 

 crossed with seven bands of darker brown, the bands being 

 ten in number and narrower on the outer feathers; head pale 

 orange buff, the feathers centred with black, and vermiculated 

 with dusky on the sides; feathers on the sides of the neck 

 much whiter, the cross-lines nearly obsolete ; frontal feathers 

 greyish-white, with minute brown frecklings; ear-tufts i finches 

 long, blackish, more or less orange-buff on the outer web and 

 white on the inner one ; face dusky-white, the feathers round 

 the eye blackish ; feathers of ruff white, all the feathers tipped 

 with black, forming a frill ; chin whitish ; rest of under surface 

 of body orange-buff, the breast-feathers for the most part white, 

 centred longitudinally with blackish-brown, with a few cross 

 vermiculations ; bill dusky horn-colour ; claws horn-colour ; 

 iris orange-yellow. Total length, 13-5 inches; wing, ir6; 

 tail, 6-0 ; tarsus, i"6. 



Adult Female.— Similar to the male in colour and of about 

 the same size. Total length, 14 inches ; wing, 11-5 ; tail, 6-5 ; 

 tarsus, 1*6, 



