PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES :ts7 



SHORT EARED- OWL [Agio accipitriniu (Pallas); Asio ftdmmeiu, Pon- 

 toppidan. 1 Woodcock-owl, moor-owl, fern-owl ; catyogle, grey or brown 

 yogle (Shetland*). Fn-nch. due d courte* oreiUu ; German, SumpfohreuU ; 

 Italian, gvfo di padule], 



I. Description. The shorteared differs conspicuously from the longeared- 

 owl in the absence of vermiculations on the upper parts, and transverse barrings 

 below, also in the shortness of the " ears." The female is larger and darker than the 

 male. The eyes are golden yellow. (PI. 84.) Length, 14-5 in. [368*30 mm.]. The disc 

 feathers are greyish buff, black round the eyes, and the forepart, on either side of the 

 beak, white. The plumage above is buff, broadly striated with sepia on the head, 

 hind-neck, and interacapulars. The innermost scapulars are marked with broad 

 arrow-shaped shaft-streaks of sepia, the outermost with broad shaft-streaks of sepia 

 spreading out into irregular transverse bars. The feathers along the outer edge of 

 the anterior end of the tract have the outer webs mostly buff, and crossed by trans- 

 verse bars of sepia, forming a row of large oval buff spots. The wing-coverts and 

 remiges are more or less regularly chequered with bars of buff and sepia, very broad 

 on the remiges. The tail is buff, crossed by four or five broad bars of sepia. On 

 the two middle feathers the bars expand at the fore-edge of the feather so as to meet 

 one another and enclose a row of oval buff spots. The under parts are of a pale 

 buff colour striated with sepia, generally broadly on the fore-breast, narrowly on 

 the flanks. The first down (protoptyle) plumage is of a dirty white colour. 

 Nothing seems to have been recorded as to the mesoptyle plumage, [w. p. p.] 



3. Distribution. This species is more migratory in its habits than most of 

 the owls, and is better known in many parts of the British Isles as an autumn and 

 winter visitor than as a breeding species. Outside the British Isles it has a very 

 extensive range, inhabiting the greater part of the European and North Asiatic 

 continents, North Africa, and ranging throughout North and South America, and 

 being resident in some of the island groups of the Pacific. It is, however, difficult 

 to distinguish between the breeding and winter ranges of this bird, for often its 

 presence or absence is determined by the food-supply, and it is usually present in 

 numbers during periods of abnormal increase of small rodents. In Northern Europe 



1 This should be, by strict rule of priority, the right name of this species, if we accept the 

 view, sanctioned in America, that the figure to which the specific term flan\me\t is attached in 

 I'c>nt<>|>pidan's work does represent a shorteared-owl, in which case Tyto alba becomes the name 

 of the barn-owl. We hesitate, however, to adopt so revolutionary a change while the actual 

 fact of pri. .t it y itself seems open to doubt EDIT. 



VOL. II. 3D 



