SCOPS-OWL. 177 



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

 which some ornithologists regard the S. japonicus 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 brown, 

 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 America is inhabited by an allied species, S. mio (Linn.), of which an 

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

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

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

 in Norfolk. 



