SHORT-EARED 



see so beautifully disposed in the Long- eared and 

 Tawny Owls. The head and disk are compara- 

 tively small, the latter complete ; the egrets in the 

 male are nearly an inch in length, composed of about 

 six feathers, liver brown on the centre and outer 

 edges, buff orange on the inner webs. The disk 

 around the eyes is black, extending outwards to a 

 greater or less degree in different specimens, and in 

 some reaching almost to the margin of the ruff. 

 The external half of the disk, however, is gene- 

 rally yellowish brown, the shaft of the feathers 

 black above the eyes, and where they cover the 

 bill, nearly white tinted with gray ; the very edge 

 of the disk is white, and coming in contact with 

 plumes forming the ruff, which are white at the 

 base, causes the appearance of a white circle 

 The feathers composing the ruff are white at the 

 base, mottled towards their tips with yellowish 

 orange and black, except opposite the conchal 

 opening, where they are wholly of the latter 

 colour. The upper parts are buff orange, having 

 the feathers broadly marked in the centre with 

 liver brown, sometimes having a purplish tinge ; 

 on those immediately folding over the wings 

 the marginal edgings of light are broader, often 

 approaching to yellowish white, and here forms 

 the conspicuous stripe which we have seen in most 

 of the Owls ; on the shoulders the markings are 



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