68 OBNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



OTUS, COVIEB. 



Otus, CUVIER, Regne Animal, I. 327 (1817). 



General form longer and more slender than in the preceding genera; head mod- 

 erate; ear-tufts long, erectile; bill rather short, curved from the base; facial disc 

 more perfect than in the preceding; wings long; tail moderate; tarsi and toes cov- 

 ered with short feathers ; claws long, curved ; eyes rather small, and surrounded by 

 radiating feathers. 



This genus contains ten or twelve species of various countries, all of which are 

 more handsome birds than are usually met with in this family. 



OTUS WILSONIANUS. Lesson. 

 The Long-eared Owl. 



Otus Wikonianvs, Lesson. Traite d'Orn., I. 110 (1831). 



Otus Americanus, Bonaparte. Comp. List, 7 (1838). Syn., 37. 



Strix otus, Wilson. Bonaparte's edition, 449. 



Strix otus, Linnseus. Aud. Orn. Biog., IV. 572. Nuttall, I. 130. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Ear-tufts long and conspicuous; eyes rather small; wings long; tarsi and toes 

 densely feathered; upper parts mottled with brownish-black, fulvous, and ashy- 

 white, the former predominating; breast pale-fulvous, with longitudinal stripes of 

 brownish-black ; abdomen white ; every feather with a wide longitudinal stripe, and 

 with transverse stripes of brownish-black; legs and toes pale-fulvous, usually 

 unspotted, but frequently with irregular narrow transverse stripes of dark-brown ; 

 eye nearly encircled with black ; other feathers of the face ashy-white, with minute 

 lines of black ; ear-tufts brownish-black edged with fulvous and ashy- white; quills 

 pale-fulvous at their bases, with irregular transverse bands of brown; inferior 

 coverts of the wing pale-fulvous, frequently nearly white ; the larger widely tipped 

 with black; tail brown, with several irregular transverse bands of ashy-fulvous, 

 which are mottled, as on the quills; bill and claws dark horn-color; irides yellow. 



Total length, female, about fifteen inches ; wing, eleven to eleven and a half; tail, 

 six inches. Male rather smaller. 



This species is rather common in New England, rather 

 preferring the less settled districts to the others. It is 

 eminently nocturnal in its habits, and has the power of see- 

 ing in the daytime to a less degree than any of the other 

 species with which I am acquainted. 



A specimen that I once had, as a pet, could not see my 

 hand as it approached him, and would permit my finger to 

 touch his eye before he drew over it the thin nictitating 

 membrane given to all birds to protect this delicate organ. 



I do not remember of ever hearing this owl utter a cry 



