162 WHITE OWL. 



or spotted irregularly in like manner with two white and two 

 grey spots on each side of the shafts; tertiaries, as the 

 back: all the quills are pure white on three fourths of the 

 breadth of their inner webs; greater and lesser under wing 

 coverts, white, sometimes pale buff with small dark spots. 

 Tail, pale buff, with four or five blackish grey bars; the tip 

 white; the side feathers almost entirely yellowish white, as 

 are the inner webs of all the feathers except the two middle 

 ones; it is jagged at the end, as are the wings; tail coverts, 

 as the back; legs, feathered with short white, or sometimes 

 very light rufous hair-like feathers, shortest near the toes, 

 which are flesh-coloured, but covered above with the feathers 

 of the legs; claws, brown, thin, and much pointed; that of 

 the middle toe slightly serrated on the inner side, and all 

 grooved beneath. They become whitish in age. 



The female resembles the male, but the colours are duller, 

 and the breast is often marked with the yellowish grey of 

 the back, and spotted on the tips of the feathers at its lower 

 part with greyish black. Length, one foot three inches and 

 a half. The wings expand to the width of three feet two 

 inches or over. 



The young birds are at first covered with snow-white down ; 

 the yellow plumage is gradually assumed, being at first paler 

 in colour than in the old birds, and the breast less tinged 

 with it; but being considerably like the old ones, there is 

 not much change as they advance in age. It is long before 

 they are able to fly. When fully fledged the length is about 

 twelve inches; the bill pale flesh-colour; iris, black; there is 

 an orange brown spot before it; the face is dull white, the 

 ruff white, its tips rufous; breast, white; back, pale reddish 

 yellow, mottled with grey and brown as in the adult ; primaries, 

 light yellowish, tinged with grey, and only a little mottled. 

 Tail, as the primaries, and but faintly barred; claws, pale purple 

 brown. 



Varieties of this bird have occasionally occurred. Meyer 

 mentions one which was pied yellow and white; another, of 

 which the ground colour was perfectly white, and the pencillings 

 on the upper plumage very indistinctly defined in the palest 

 possible colouring. 



