OTUS.] AVES RAPTORES. 91 



DIMENS. Entire length two feet. TEMM. 



DESCRIPT. All the upper parts elegantly varied and spotted with 

 black, ochre-yellow, and yellowish grayt under parts ochre-yellow, 

 with longitudinal black spots and streaks : throat white : egrets com- 

 posed of six or eight elongated feathers, coloured like the rest of the 

 plumage : tarsal feathers reddish yellow : bill and claws horn-colour : 

 irides bright orange. (Female.') Rather larger than the male, and 

 without the white throat. (Egg.) White: long. diam. two inches five 

 lines ; trans, diam. one inch ten lines. 



An occasional visitant of extreme rarity in this country. According to 

 Montagu has been shot in Yorkshire and in Sussex, as well as in Scot- 

 land. More recently four specimens are said to have been observed on 

 the northern coast of Donegal, Ireland. Inhabits mountainous and rocky 

 situations, where it breeds. Food small quadrupeds, and reptiles. 



(2. SCOPS, Sav.) 



21. B. Scops, Nob. (Scops-eared Owl.) Plumage 

 variegated with brown, gray, black, and rufous. 



Strix Scops, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. i. p. 103. Scops-eared Owl, 

 Selb. Illust. vol. i. p. 92. pi. 22. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 67. 

 Little-horned Owl, Mont. Orn. Diet. Supp. App. 



DIMENS. Entire length seven inches and a half. FLEM. 



DESCRIPT. Head, neck, and egrets, (the latter consisting of six or 

 eight feathers,) brownish gray, speckled with black ; rest of the upper 

 parts reddish ash, with spots and zigzag streaks of black and brown : 

 under parts ash-gray, streaked and speckled with black and reddish 

 brown: quills barred with white: tail variegated with black, brown, 

 and white : bill black : irides yellow : toes bluish gray. (Egg.) Of a 

 short oval form : white, with a few faint dusky specks : long. diam. 

 one inch three lines; trans, diam. one inch and half a line. 



Very rare. Has been killed near York, and in one or two other parts 

 of the country. Is probably migratory. Preys on mice and insects. 

 Obs. The Strix pulchella of Donovan (Brit. Birds, vol. vn. pi. 165.) 

 appears to be the same as this species. 



GEN. 8. OTUS, Cuv. 



22. O. vulgaris, Flem. (Long-eared Owl.) Plumage 

 reddish yellow, variegated with gray and dusky brown : 

 egrets elongated, composed of eight or ten feathers. 



Strix Otus, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. i. p. 102. Long-eared Owl, 

 Mont. Orn. Diet. Selb. Illust. vol. i. p. 85. pi. 20. Bew. Brit. 

 Birds, vol. i. p. 56. 



DIMENS. Entire length fourteen inches : length of the tail six 

 inches ; of the egrets one inch three lines ; from the carpus to the end 

 of the wing eleven inches six lines. 



DESCRIPT. Upper parts of a yellowish rust-colour, irregularly marked 

 and spotted with deep brown, gray and cinereous : egrets of eight or ten 

 black feathers, edged with yellow and white : under parts orange-yellow, 

 with oblong and arrow-shaped streaks of dusky brown : quills and tail 

 barred with brownish black : tarsal feathers yellow, without spots : bill 



