STRIX 477 



This owl is subject to two phases of plumage, the one greyish and the 

 other rufous, the latter being, it would seem, rather more common in the 

 north than in the south. 



Hal). Europe generally, becoming rarer in the high north and 

 east, but has been met with in Lapland and three or four times 

 in Finland ; North Africa ; occurs in the Kirghese forests but not 

 in Asia further east. 



Throughout its range it is a resident, frequenting woods and 

 forests, and is essentially nocturnal in its habits. It feeds on 

 small mammals and birds, large insects and even on fish and 

 frogs, casting up the undigested portions in elongated pellets. 

 Its flight is soft and noiseless, and its call-note is a loud hoot, 

 and in the pairing season a wild laughing cry. It breeds early, 

 selecting for the purpose of nidification a hollow tree, an old 

 ruin, or a disused chimney, occasionally a deserted Rook's or 

 Crow's nest, and in March deposits, on a slight bed of dry 

 herbage, 3 to 5 pure white, smooth, roundish eggs, which in size 

 average 1'8 by 1*6. 



S. willkouskii (Menzbier), Bull. B. O. Club, vi. p. 4 (1896), from 

 Transcaucasia, of which I have not seen a specimen, is said to 

 differ from the present species in general colour, being darker, 

 in character of markings, and in having the bill white. 



680. URAL OWL. 

 STRIX URALENSIS. 



Strix uralensls, Pall. Reis. Russ. Reichs, i. p. 445 (1771) ; Naum. i. p. 422, 

 Taf. 42, fig. 1 ; Gould, B. of E. i. pi. 44 ; (Dresser), v. p. 277, 

 pi. 307 ; (Tacz.) F. 0. Sib. 0. p. 138 ; (Sharpe), Cat. B. Br. Mus. i. 

 p. 255 ; S. liturata, Tengmalm., Vet. Ak. Handl. 1793, p. 264 ; 

 S.fuscescens, Temm. and Schlegel. Faun. Jap. Aves. pi. 10 (1850) ; 

 (Sharpe), torn. cit. p. 256. 



Ural-Habichts-Eule, German ; Slag-ugle t Norweg, ; Slaguggla, 

 Swed. ; Viirupollo, Finn. ; Bolsckaya-saraya-Sova, Russ. ; Fuhuro 

 Jap. 



ad. (Archangel). Upper parts greyish white, closely striped with 

 dark brown ; wings arid tail dark brown barred and tipped with ashy grey 

 tinged with brown ; facial disks greyish white, the feathers with blackish 

 shafts ; forehead and space between the disks deep brown ; ruff white 

 mottled with dark brown ; under parts white broadly streaked with dark 

 brown ; feet and legs densely feathered ; bill deep yellowish ; iris blackish 

 brown. Culmen 1'8, wing 14'0, tail 11 '10, tarsus 2 - 4 inch ; tail rounded, the 

 outer feathers about l - 5 inch shorter than the middle ones. The male 

 does not differ except that it is rather purer in colour, and smaller in size. 



