Species VI. STRIX BRACHYOTOS. 



SHORT-EARED OWL. 



[Plate XXXIII. Fig. 3.] 



ToRTON, Sysi. p. UT.—Arct. Zool. p. 229, No. 116.— Lath, i., 124.— Xa OhmeliS, 

 ou la grand Cheveche, Buff, i., PI. enl. 438.* 



This is another species common to both continents, being found in 

 Britain as far north as the Orkney isles, where it also breeds ; building 

 its nest upon the ground, amidst the heath ; arrives and disappears in 

 the south parts of England with the Woodcock, that is in October and 

 April ; consequently does not breed there. It is called at Hudson's 

 Bay the Mouse Hawk ; and is described as not flying like other Owls in 

 search of prey ; but sitting quiet on a stump of a tree, watching for 

 mice. It is said to be found in plenty in the woods near Chatteau bay, 

 on the coast of Labrador. In the United States it is also a bird of 

 passage, coming to us from the north in November, and departing in 

 April. The bird represented in the plate was shot in New Jersey, a 

 few miles below Philadelphia, in a thicket of pines. It has the stern 

 aspect of a keen, vigorous, and active bird ; and is reputed to be an 

 excellent mouser. It flies frequently by day, particularly in dark cloudy 

 weather, takes short flights, and, when sitting and looking sharply 

 around, erects the two slight feathers that constitute its horns, which 

 are at such times very noticeable ; but otherwise not perceivable. No 

 person, on slightly examining this bird after being .shot, would suspect 

 it to be furnished with horns ; nor are they discovered but by careful 

 search, or previous observation on the living bird. Bewick, in his His- 

 tory of British Birds, remarks, that this species is sometimes seen in 

 companies ; twenty-eight of them being once counted in a turnip field 

 in November. 



Length fifteen inches, extent three feet four inches ; general color 

 above dark bi'own, the feathers broadly skirted with pale yellowish 

 brown ; bill large, black ; irides rich golden yellow, placed in a bed of 

 deep black, which radiates outwards all around, except towards the bill, 

 where the plumage is whitish ; eai"s bordered with a semicircular line of 

 black and tawny yellow dots ; tail rounded, longer than usual with 

 Owls, crosssed with five bands of dark brown, and as many of yellow 



* We add the following synonymes : Sirix brachijotos, Lath. hid. Orn. p. 55. — 

 Sirix Uhda, Linn. Si/si. ed. 10, p. 93.— Temm. Man. d' Orn. i., p. 99. 



(93) 



