176 HAWK OWL. 



Male; weight, about twelve ounces; length, about one foot 

 three inches; bill, orange yellow, and almost hid by the 

 feathers: Mr. Higgins describes his specimen as having the 

 upper part white, and the lower horn-colour. Iris, bright 

 orange according to some accounts, but yellow according to 

 others ; bristles intermixed with yellowish white feathers cover 

 the parts about the bill. Head, small, dusky, and white on 

 the sides, the feathers being spotted and the face narrow, a 

 black-edged band passes down to the wing; the ruff indistinct, 

 a black crescent only appearing about the ears; crown, dusky 

 black, thickly dotted with white, each feather having three 

 white spots. Neck, olive brown, marked on the sides with a 

 curved streak of brownish black, with another behind it of a 

 triangular form; nape, olive or blackish brown, a good deal 

 marked with white; chin, dusky, with a large spot of brownish 

 olive; throat, dusky in front, white on the sides, the shafts 

 of the feathers being black. Breast, white above, with a 

 blot of dark brown on each side, united by an irregularly- 

 formed band; below elegantly barred with dark brown lines. 

 Back, brownish olive, speckled with broad spots of white. 



The wings greater and lesser wing coverts, as the back, 

 but less spotted; primaries, dark brown, barred with four or 

 five yellowish white spots on the outer web near the tip. 

 Secondaries, the same, with two or three spots forming 

 irregular lines, and stDme of them have white spots on the 

 inner webs also; tertiaries, brown, spotted on the outer webs, 

 forming, when the wing is closed, a broad and long band of 

 white with a few irregular bars of brown ; the first feather 

 is the shortest, the third the longest, the fourth a little 

 shorter, the second a little less than the fourth. Greater 

 and lesser under wing coverts, white with brown bars, some 

 of them regular, but others alternatelv, on the outer and 

 inner webs. The tail extends about three inches beyond the 

 end of the wings. It consists of twelve feathers, and is 

 wedge-shaped, rounded at the end, and of a brownish olive 

 colour, with six or seven or more narrow bars of white, the 

 three upper ones concealed by the tail coverts; they are 

 much more distinct on the inner than on the outer webs 

 in the latter assuming more the character of spots than of 

 bars, and the tips white, the bars shew clearly through, 

 bending in the middle towards the end; tail coverts, as the 

 back, and with a broad terminal white spot; under tail 

 coverts, with broad white bands, and narrow brown ones. 



