LITTLE OWL. 165 



contrary, that the object is to alarm the prey sought, and so 

 frighten them out of their coverts into the way of their 

 pursuers, but this too is mere conjecture. One may almost 

 wonder that it has occurred to no 'savan,' to suppose that 

 the sole purport may have been to give different authors an 

 opportunity of promulging each the separate notions of his 

 own imagination on the subject. 



Like the rest of the Owls this one breeds early in the 

 spring. 



The nest, so far as one is made, is built in chimneys, 

 and other parts of buildings; pine and other trees, about 

 half-way up; as also in osier beds. 



The eggs are from two to five in number, and white. The 

 male takes his turn in sitting on them. They are said by 

 Mr. Hewitson to vary in size and shape. The young are 

 hatched in fourteen or fifteen days. 



Male; weight, four ounces; length, eight inches and a 

 half to nine and a half; bill, yellowish grey, edged and 

 tipped with yellowish- very short, strong, much hooked, and 

 surrounded at the base with bristly feathers; cere, dull yellow 

 or greenish yellow; the feathers at its base are bristly at the 

 tips, partially black on the shafts; iris, pale yellow a streak 

 of black extends from it to the bill; the eye is surrounded 

 with yellowish white. Head, greyish brown, spotted with 

 rufous white, with a central streak of the same on the 

 crown; the ruff incomplete and inconspicuous, the feathers 

 being a little more curved than the rest: the face is greyish 

 white, passing into brown at the outer side of the eye; neck, 

 brown, spotted behind and on the sides with large white 

 spots, forming a collar, and with a large patch of the same 

 in front; nape, brown, spotted with white; chin, white; un- 

 derneath it a semicircle cf yellowish brown, with darker bars; 

 throat, banded with white, curving upward towards the ears; 

 breast, yellowish or greyish white tinged with rufous, with 

 brown streaks and spots, longer on the upper part and 

 smaller lower down, forming bars on the middle of it; back, 

 greyish brown, spotted with two white spots, edged with 

 buff on most of the feathers. 



The wings expand to the width of one foot eight or nine 

 inches, and extend three quarters of an inch beyond the end 

 of the tail. Greater and lesser wing coverts, greyish brown, 

 the feathers with one white spot partly hid by the brown 

 of the superincumbent feather, which together form lines of 



