106 RAPTORES. NOCTUA. NIGHT-OWL, 



visitant, In size it nearly equals Noctua Passerma, which 

 it also resembles in the disposition of its feathers, but is less 

 spotted with white, and the dark part of the plumage ap- 

 proaches nearer to that shade known by the name of Liver- 

 brown. The shorter tarsi and tliickly feathered toes are 

 also distinguishing characters, as well as the black facial fea- 

 thers, between the bill and eye-orbits ; and those which pro- 

 ceed from the posterior angle of the eye, with the belt of 

 velvety feathers immediately behind the auditory opening. 

 The tail is also longer in proportion to its size, and the bird 

 altogether exhibits a more lengthened form. In Europe it 

 is widely distributed through the northern and eastern parts, 

 being found in Sweden, Norway, Russia, and parts of Ger- 

 many, inhabiting the thick and extensive pine forests. In 

 North America, according to Dr RICHARDSON, it has a wide 

 range, embracing all the woody country from the great Slave 

 Lake to the United States. Its cry he describes as a single 

 melancholy note, repeated, at an interval of a minute or two, 

 during the greater part of the night ; at which time also it 

 is in activity, for, when roused by day, it is so much dazzled 

 and distressed by the glare of the sun, as to be easily caught 

 Nest, &c. by the hand. It breeds in the holes or clefts of pine trees, 

 Food. and lays two white eggs. Its food consists of mice and in- 

 sects, particularly those of the coleopterous kind. The 

 plumage, like that of other night-flying specie^, is very soft 

 and downy. 



PLATE 26. represents this bird of the natural size. 



Bill much curved and compressed ; the culmen and tip 

 yellowish white ; the sides dark grey. Facial disk 

 black at the posterior and anterior angles of the eye- 

 orbits ; the rest greyish- white, mixed with black. Ear 

 conch large, with a narrow operculum. Velvety fea- 

 thers behind the auditory opening, brownish-black. 

 Crown, nape, and hind part of the neck, liver-brown, 

 spotted with white; those upon the latter part large, 



