362 SYRNIA PASSERINA. 



j^j, its daw /j ; third toe ii, its claw || ; fourth toe 

 y^, its claw M. 



Female. — The female is similar, but considerably 

 larger. 



Length 1 1 inches ; wing from flexnre 61 ; tail 3^. 



Remarks. — Mr Selby gives, as a character of his 

 genus Noctua, in which he places this owl, " auditory 

 conch large, with a narrow operculum ;" but the audi- 

 tory conch in this species is merely an oval space 

 not nearly the height of the head, with the aperture 

 of the ear in its lower part, and totally destitute of 

 operculum, but fringed with feathers, as in a hawk. 

 The curious bulgfed covering of the nostrils, of which 

 he makes no mention, is very remarkable, and might 

 tempt one to consider this species as forming, with 

 some others, a genus distinct from that of the Snowy 

 Owl ; but Strix funerea and S. passerina, are in other 

 respects very intimately allied ; and the first of these 

 has a strong aflSnity to Str. Nyctea. 



The British species that approaches nearest to this 

 genus is, on the one hand, Strix Bubo of Linnaeus, 

 which diflFers chiefly in having a larger and more flat- 

 tened head, which is, moreover, furnished with large 

 tufts ; and, on the other, Strix Tengmalmi, which, al- 

 though very closely resembling Syrnia passerina and 

 S. funerea, appears from the development of the ruflp, 

 the more complete facial disks, and the larger conch, 

 to belong to the genus Aluco. In fact the two genera 

 pass insensibly into each other, more especially by the 

 smaller species. 



