130 



AFRICAN PASSERINE OWL. 



ScotopUlus perlat-us, SWAIN? . 



Above, rufous brown ; head above, thickly covered with round 

 white dots ; tail, brownish, with seven pair of white spots, 

 margined with black. 



La Clievechette perlee, Le Vaill., Ois. d'Afrique, vi. PI. 284. 

 Strix pexlata, Vieil. Ency. Meth. 1290. 



THIS is certainly the most elegant of all the Passe- 

 rine Owls, and it is no less interesting, as being the 

 only one yet found in Africa representing those of 

 the opposite continent of tropical America. 



In the structure of all these small owls there is 

 no essential difference, although inhabiting different 

 continents. They differ materially from all those 

 of the lesser European owls, as Tmgmalmi, &c., 

 with which they have been hitherto arranged, in 

 having little or no facial disk ; in the smallness ol 

 their ears, which are not much larger than in ordi- 

 nary birds ; in the shortness of their wings, and in 

 the length of their nearly even tail. They are ex- 

 cluded from the European province, and all the 

 species we have seen, save this, are peculiar to 

 tropical America. In all these, the wings hardly 

 exceed the length of the tail ; the third, fourth, and 



