86 ASIONID^E. 



Family ASIONID^. 

 Genus ASIO, Brisson, Ornith. i. p. 28 (1760). 



Asio = a Horned Owl in Pliny ; perhaps akin to dsmus = an ass, from its 

 long ears. 



Asio otus. LONG-EARED OWL 

 Strix Otus, Linnaeus, S. N. i. p. 132 (1766). 



Strix otus,, Naum. i. p. 451. 



Asio otus, Macg. iii. p. 453 ; Newton, i, p. 158 ; Dresser, v. 



p. 251. 

 Otus vulgaris, Hewitson, p. 55 ; Gray, p. 26 ; Yarr. ed. 2, i. 



p. 124 ; id. ed. 3, i. p. 131 ; Gould, i. pi. 31 ; Harting, p. 8. 

 Long-eared Owl, Yarr. ed. 1, i. p. 117. 



Otus = wros, an Owl conspicuous for its ears, wra. 



Spread over the Palsearctic Region, and resident through- 

 out Great Britain and Ireland. 



Asio brachyotus. SHORT-EARED OWL. 



Strix Brachyotos, Forster, Phil. Trans. Ixii. p. 384 



(1772). 



Strix brachyotis, Naum. i. p. 459. 



Asio brachyotus, Macg. iii. p. 461. 



Otus brachyotus, Gray, p. 27 ; Harting, p. 8. 



Otos brachyotos, Hewitson, p. 58 ; Yarr. ed. 2, i. p. 128 ; id. 



ed. 3, i. p. 135. 



Asio accipitrinus, Newton, i. p. 163 ; Dresser, v. p. 257. 

 Brachyotus palustris, Gould, i. pi. 32. 

 Short-eared Owl, Yarr. ed. 1, i. p. 121. 



Brachyotus = short-eared, from /3pa%us + ovs, gen. wros. 



An almost cosmopolitan species; a winter visitant to 

 Great Britain and Ireland, but resident on some of the 

 marshy and moorland districts. 



Genus SYRNIUM, Savigny, Syst. des Ois. de TEgypte, 

 p. 51 (1810). 



Syrmum, a modern invention without apparent meaning (cf. Sundevall, 

 Tentamen, p. 104). 



