122 BARRED OWL. 



food. The difference of size between the male and female of 

 this Owl is extraordinary, amounting, sometimes, to nearly 

 eight inches in the length. Both scream during the day like a 

 Hawk. 



The male Barred Owl measures sixteen inches and a half in 

 length, and thirty-eight inches in extent; upper parts a pale 

 brown, marked with transverse spots of white; wings barred 

 with alternate bands of pale brown and darker; head smooth, 

 very large, mottled with transverse touches of dark brown, pale 

 brown and white; eyes large, deep blue, the pupil not per- 

 ceivable; face, or radiated circle of the eyes, gray, surrounded 

 by an outline of brown and white dots; bill yellow, tinged with 

 green; breast barred transversely with rows of brown and white; 

 belly streaked longitudinally with long stripes of brown, on a 

 yellowish ground; vent plain yellowish white; thighs and feath- 

 ered legs the same, slightly pointed with brown; toes nearly 

 covered with plumage; claws dark horn colour, very sharp; tail 

 rounded, and remarkably concave below, barred with six broad 

 bars of brown, and as many narrow ones of white; the back and 

 shoulders have a cast of chesnut; at each internal angle of the 

 eye is a broad spot of black; the plumage of the radiated circle 

 round the eye ends in long black hairs; and the bill is encom- 

 passed by others of a longer and more bristly kind. These, 

 probably, serve to guard, the eye when any danger approaches 

 it, in sweeping hastily through the woods; and those usually 

 found on Flycatchers, may have the same intention to fulfil; 

 for on the slightest touch of the point of any of these hairs, the 

 nictitating membrane was instantly thrown over the eye. 



The female is twenty-two inches long, and four feet in ex- 

 tent; the chief difference of colour consists in her wings being 

 broadly spotted with white; the shoulder being a plain chocolate 

 brown; the tail extends considerably beyond the tips of the 

 wings; the bill is much larger, and of a more golden yellow; 

 iris of the eye the same as that of the male. 



The different character of the feathers of this, and I believe 

 of most Owls, is really surprising. Those that surround the 



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