SCOPS BRASILIANUS. 51 



buff, with about seven blackish cross bands ; tail tawny buff, tipped with whitish, 

 and with about seven blackish cross bands : beneath dull ochraceous buff, with 

 dusky brown cross lines ; throat-collar whitish : whole length 19-5 inches, wing 

 14-5, tail 8*5. Female similar, but rather larger. 



Hab. North and South America. 



This bird, eagle-like in its dimensions, and the largest of our Owls, 

 is found throughout both Americas, though some authors, relying on 

 certain trivial variations in size and colour, have separated the southern 

 from the northern form, and called it Bubo mugcllanicus. In the 

 Argentine Republic it is well known by its Indian name " Nacurutii ;" 

 also in Paraguay according to Azara, who says: " It pronounces its 

 own name in tones which scare such as pass by night through the deep 

 woods, which are its palaces/' 



The habits of the Virginian Owl are too well known to need to bs 

 rewritten in this place : the ornithologists of North America have 

 supplied several biographies of it, that by Audubon being specially 

 familiar. 



289. SCOPS BRASILIANUS (Gm.). 

 (CHOLIBA OWL.) 



Scops brasilianus, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 11 7 j White, P. Z. S. 1883, p. 41 

 (Cordova) j Narrows, Auk, 1884, p. 29 (Entrerios) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. ii. 

 p. 108. 



escription. Above brown, vermiculated with darker brown, and spotted and 

 streaked more or less distinctly with black; neck-collar lighter; wings dark 

 brown, regularly barred across with sandy rufous ; tail dark brown, with about 

 ten regular cross bars of sandy rufous : beneath dirty white, washed with buff, 

 densely crossed with narrow zigzag lines of blackish brown : whole length 

 9'5 inches, wing 6'2, tail 3*7. Female similar, but rather larger. 



Hab. South America. 



Azara and d'Orbigny have described the habits of this Owl, which 

 is common in Paraguay and in the Argentine State of Corrientes, the 

 name for it in both countries being Choliba. It is a bird of the woods, 

 strictly nocturnal, lives in pairs, and spends the day in a thick-f'oliaged 

 tree, the male and female sitting close together. At night it comes a 

 great deal about houses, where it diligently explores every corner in 

 search of cockroaches and other vermin, and in this way commends 

 itself to the country people, who esteem it highly, and often keep it tame 

 in their homes. Its hoot, described as sounding like tururu-tu-tu, is not 

 unpleasant to the ear, and is a familiar soui:d to all who traverse the 



