ASIONIN^. 127 



Length, 14 to 15 inches; wing, 13; tail 5 ; tarsus, If ; the closed 

 wings exceed the tail. 



The Short-eared Owl is found, with hardly any variation, over 

 all the Old World, and great part of North America. In India 

 it is almost exclusively found in long grass, and in beating for 

 florikin many are always flushed ; one now and then paying the 

 penalty of keeping company with such a game bird by falling to 

 the gun of some tyro. It is migratory in India, coming in at the 

 beginning of the cold weather, and leaving about March. It 

 hunts chiefly by night, though it flies well by day ; and it is 

 probably the Owl that is not unfrequently hawked at by fal- 

 coners in the North West, as mentioned under the head of Strix 

 Candida, p. 119. It is said to breed on the ground. Its voice is 

 a double or treble hoot, not unlike, says Pallas, the call of 

 the Hoopoe. Several allied species of Otus are found in America, 

 and one or two in Africa. 



Sub-fam. BuBONiN^, Vigors. 



Head moderate, furnished with two long ear tufts on the forehead ; 

 orifice of the ears rather small, or moderate, without an operculum ; 

 wings moderate, or longish; tarsus stout, usually feathered; toes 

 and nails strong. 



This family includes the great horned owls, or Eagle owls, and 

 also the small Scops owls. The bill is usually strong, and the legs 

 and feet thick and powerful, with large talons. Some of them are 

 partially diurnal in their habits, and most of them have yellow 

 irides. 



Gen. Urrua, Hodgson. 



Syn. Bilbo, Auct. Ascalaphia, Is. Geoffr.? 



Char. — Bill slightly lengthened, scarcely arched from the base, 

 compressed, strong, black ; nostrils ovoid, transverse ; wings long, 

 3rd quill longest, and 4th quill sub-equal to it ; tail rather long, 

 nearly even; tarsi and toes feathered ; tarsus moderate, moderately- 

 strong ; toes strong, and the claws sub-equal. 



This genus is usually joined to the next, and both are placed under 

 Bubo, but erroneously so, in my opinion, and I have adopted 



