LONG-EARED OWL. 283 



generally composed of six principal feathers, gra- 

 duated in length, ochraceous towards the exterior 

 edge, grayish white on the inner, the centre deep 

 black, slightly broken into at the edges by each 

 colour. All the upper parts have a ground of 

 grayish white along the shafts of the feathers, 

 streaked with black, and barred and spotted with 

 undulating markings of ochraceous and black; 

 the secondaries become more distinctly barred, and 

 the quills, towards their base, are crossed with 

 uninterrupted bars of dull black and ochraceous 

 or tawny ; towards the tips, they become beauti- 

 fully clouded with gray and blackish brown. The 

 tail is very nearly square, the centre feathers are 

 barred irregularly, those towards the outside deci- 

 dedly crossed by black and tawny. The under parts 

 are of a rich yellowish white, tinted on the edges 

 of the feathers with ochraceous, the centre of each 

 black, breaking off in delicate and interrupted bars 

 of the same tint, particularly on the flanks and 

 lower parts of the belly. The tarsi and toes, to 

 within one or two scalings of the extremity, are 

 thickly clothed with yellowish white downy 

 feathers. Claws are long, not much hooked, or of 

 great strength ; the colour wood brown, pinkish at 

 the base during life. The irides are rich and 

 brilliant Dutch or orpiment orange* Length is from 

 thirteen to fourteen inches, and the form is not so 

 robust or muscular as in the Tawny Owl. There 

 is considerable variation in the shades of different 



