BRITISH BIRDS. 59 



TENGMALM'S OWL.* 



(Strix Tengmalmi) Linn. Chouette Tengmalm, 

 Temm.) 



THE length of this bird is about nine and a half 

 inches, breadth twenty-one and a half, weight four 

 ounces : the bill is light horn colour ; irides pale 

 yellow ; orbits black, and a patch or streak of that 

 colour passes from underneath the eye to the beak. 

 The circular feathers on the face are white, mixed 

 or faintly streaked with pale brown, and surrounded 



* In the last edition of this work, this figure was named Strix 

 fiasserina, but from a careful examination of the specimen from 

 which the drawing was made, we find the toes, as represented, are 

 too long; the inaccuracy probably may have arisen from those parts 

 having been mutilated by the shot. 



The difference between Strix passerina and Strix Tengmalmi con- 

 sists principally in the length of the toes ; those of the former being 

 somewhat longer and thinly covered with hair-like feathers, whilst 

 the present species has the feet and toes thickly clothed with downy 

 feathers to the claws. 



