SCOPS-OWL. 177 



species, known among other names as S. bakkamcena, with 

 which some ornithologists regard the ^S*. japon'icus of China 

 and Japan as identical, while others unite this latter to the 

 European bird.* 



The beak is black ; the irides bright yellow ; the feathers 

 of the facial disk minutely speckled with greyish- white and 

 brown, the margin of the disk on each side defined by a 

 darker brown line ; from the beak over the top of the head 

 several longitudinal streaks of dark brown on a pale brown 

 ground, forming a median band passing over the head 

 between the tufts, which are short, made up of a few feathers 

 slightly elongated, differing but little in colour from the 

 grey, speckled feathers of the facial disk ; the back chestnut 

 and pale wood-brown, mottled with grey, and barred with 

 dark lines ; the outer web of the wing-feathers barred alter- 

 nately with white and speckled brown ; tail barred and spotted 

 with black, brown and pale wood-brown ; the whole of the 

 breast and belly varied with greyish- white and pale broAvn, 

 with several decided streaks and patches of umber-brown ; 

 under tail-coverts and tail-feathers beneath greyish-white, 

 mottled and barred transversely with brown ; feathers of the 

 tarsus brownish-grey with a median streak ; toes brown ; 

 claws white at the base, nearly black at the tip. 



Adult males and females are very similar in plumage, but 

 young birds have a more rufous tinge. Length about seven 

 inches. 



* North AmeriCcais inhabited by an allied species, »S'. asio (Linn.), of which an 

 example was recorded by Dr. Hobson in the 'Natu-alist' for 1855 (p. 169) as 

 having been shot near Kivkstall Abbey in Yorkshire in 1852; and, according to 

 Mr. Stevenson, another specimen is supposed to have been killed near Yarmoutli 

 in Norfolk. 



VOL. 1. 



