372 



O W L. 



of the Baltic ; nor is it at all common in the central 

 states of the American Union. 



It is a bold bird, active upon the wing, and among 

 the most diurnal of all the owls ; pursuing birds with 

 great boldness in daylight, and sometimes snatching 

 partridges and other game after they have been shot 

 by the fowlers. It has, indeed, some of the characters 

 of a hawk, resembling that species in the smallness 

 of the head, the narrow feet, and the produced tail ; 

 but still its feet, and the feathering around its eyes 

 and bill, bring it decidedly within the owl family. 

 Still, however, its general plumage, and especially the 

 plumage of its wings, differs much from that of the 

 more characteristic owls. In them the quills of the 

 wings have their external webs drawn out into a 

 margin of hairs so fine and flexible, that the wing 

 works noiselessly in the air, though of course it takes 

 a hold on that element, which lessens the rate of flight 

 in the bird. This owl wants the marginal fringe to 

 the quills, and thus its flight is firmer, but more noisy. 

 This agrees exactly with its habit, which is to dash 

 boldly upon its prey and seize it on the wing; whereas 

 the downy-winged owls come upon their prey by 

 stealth, and always the more stealthily the more that 

 their wings partake of this muffled or downy charac- 

 ter. Wilson gives the following description of this 

 bird as it occurs in the northern parts of the United 

 States. " The male of the species is fifteen inches 

 long; the bill orange-yellow, and almost hid among 

 the feathers ; plumage of the chin curving up over 

 the under mandible ; eyes bright orange ; head small ; 

 face narrow, and with very little concavity ; cheeks 

 white ; crown and hind head dusky black, thickly 

 marked with round spots of white ; sides of the neck 

 marked with a large curving streak of brown black, 

 with another a little behind it of a triangular form ; 

 back, scapulars, rump, and tail coverts brown olive, 

 thickly speckled with broad spots of white ; the tail 

 extends three inches beyond the tips of the wings, is 

 of a brown olive colour, and crossed with six or seven 

 narrow bars of white, rounded at the end, and also 

 tipped with white ; the breast and chin are marked 

 with a large spot of brown olive ; upper part of the 

 breast light ; lower and all the parts below elegantly 

 barred with dark brown and white; legs and feet 

 covered to and below the claws with long whitish 

 plumage, slightly yellow, and barred with fine lines 

 of olive ; claws horn colour. The weight of this bird 

 was twelve ounces. The female is much darker 

 above ; the quills are nearly black ; and the upper 

 part of the breast is blotched with deep blackish 

 brown." 



Nearly allied to this species there are several 

 others in different parts of the world, though none of 

 them appear to be so well known as this one. There is 

 one described by Pallas and others, as inhabiting the 

 northern parts of the mountains of Ursal, and other hilly 

 districts lying on the margin of the Polar Sea. It 

 approaches in size to the snowy owl ; and it resem- 

 bles it a little in colour, though the greater length of the 

 tail prevents any danger of confounding the one with 

 the other. The upper parts of it are whitish, marked 

 with large longitudinal spots of brown. The head is 

 large, and so is the face, which is much feathered, of 

 a greyish white, surrounded with black hairs, and a 

 circle of white and black. The quills and tail fea- 

 thers are barred with alternate streaks of black and 

 whitish. The under parts are whitish, with a brown 

 streak down the middle of each feather. The 



tail is wedge-shaped, and longer than the closed 

 wings. The bill is yellow, almost entirely concealed 

 by the hairs of the face. The irides arc brown. The 

 feet and toes are completely feathered, of a white 

 colour, with brown spots. The claws are long, and 

 of a yellow colour. The entke length of the full- 

 grown bird is about two feet, which is intermediate 

 between the male and female of the snowy owl ; but 

 as the tail is much longer than in that bird, the length 

 of the body is less in proportion ; and, altogether, the 

 bird is not nearly so heavy. The young birds are 

 differently coloured from the old ones, being mottled 

 with brown, red, and white, and having cross bars of 

 grey on the tail. In this plumage they have some- 

 times been described as a different species from the 

 mature birds ; but the identity has been 'established 

 upon authority which cannot be questioned. Next 

 to the snowy owl, this is one of the most powerful 

 and vigorous birds of the division which prey on the 

 wing, and occupies the same place among the long- 

 tailed owls as the latter does among those which have 

 the tail short. 



Another species resembling this in some particu- 

 lars is the hawk owl of Southern Africa. It is found 

 in the district of the Cape ; but it is a smaller and 

 feebler bird than the northern species which we no- 

 ticed last. On the upper part it is reddish grey, 

 spotted with white, with spots of the same on the wing 

 coverts and the tail feathers, with the exception of the 

 two middle ones, which are grey. The upper parts 

 are entirely white. The bill, which is very short, is 

 black. The feet and toes, which are small and feeble, 

 are entirely feathered. The tail is very long, and 

 wedge-shaped ; and the entire length of the bird is 

 scarcely more than the half of that of the bird of the 

 western mountains. Another African species is the 

 variegated owl of authors, which differs from the 

 one now mentioned chiefly in the colours of the 

 plumage. 



It would, however, be almost endless to mention 

 the various owls of which this very numerous division 

 is composed ; but there is still one species which de- 

 serves notice from the peculiarity of its manners. 

 This is the rabbit owl of Molina, improperly called 

 the Coquimbo owl by Latham, inasmuch as it is found 

 in North America as well as in South. The upper 

 parts of it are varied with yellowish grey and brown, 

 marked with brown spots of larger size. Two circles 

 of white and grey surround the face, and a white 

 band passes over the eyes. The flanks are reddish 

 with brown spots ; and the rest of the under part is 

 whitish. The bill is greenish in the middle and 

 blackish at the sides ; and the feet, which are thinly 

 covered with hairs, are grey. Its length is about nine 

 or ten inches ; it occurs chiefly on the dry plains of 

 warm countries in America ; and the chief peculi- 

 arity of its manners is, its digging a burrow for itself 

 to the depth of a few feet in the earth, after the man- 

 ner of a rabbit. Its eggs are represented, contrary 

 to the habit of most of the owls, to amount to not 

 less than a dozen, of a white colour, and nearly round 

 in shape. 



The species which we have noticed do not amount 

 to nearly half of the owls of this division which are 

 named in collections ; but so little is known of the 

 manners of these, and indeed of the greater part of 

 those which we have enumerated, that little or no in- 

 formation respecting them can be given which would 

 in the least interest the general reader. We shall, 



