148 



OWLS. 



bird. The body of the great grey owl is, however, much smaller than that of the 

 great horned owl, in fact but little larger than that of the barred owl. The long 

 tail and the loose fluffy plumage of the bird make it look much larger than it 

 really is." 



The Ural owl (S. uralense), of which a pair are represented in 

 our illustration, belongs to a subgroup distinguished from the preced- 

 ing forms by the feathers of the head and neck having a simple median dark 



Ural Owl. 



URAL OWL (j nat. size). 



streak, without any lateral bars. In this species the facial disc is dusky white, 

 and the ruff pure white with dark median streaks to the feathers ; on the upper- 

 parts the general colour is dull white streaked with dark brown, ea'ch feather being 

 brown in the middle and white on the sides ; on the under-parts below the head 

 the hue is whitish, some of the feathers being tinged with yellow, and all of them 

 with a dark median streak. The quills of the wings are brown, with whitish tips, 

 and marked with bands of paler brown, tending to ashy on their outer webs ; and 

 the tail-feathers are very similarly coloured. The total length of this fine bird is 27 J 

 inches. The Ural owl is distributed over Northern and Eastern Europe, and North 



