STRIX 479* 



stridula and S. nivicola ; bill green, yellow at the tip ; cere olive ; toe- 

 scales pale green ; claws black, slaty at base ; iris dark brown. Gape 

 1'45, wing 13'5, tail 8'5, tarsus 2 '5 inch. 



Hob. Gilgit and Peshawar ; Afghanistan ? 



Nothing is on record respecting the habits or nidification of 

 this species. 



683. LAPP OWL. 

 STRIX LAPPONICA. 



Strix lapponica, Eelz. Faun. Suec. p. 79 (1800) ; Naum. Nachtrag. Taf. 

 349 ; (Gould), B. of E. i. pi. 42 ; (Sharpe), Cat. B. Br. Mus. i. 

 p. 254 ; (Dresser), v. p. 281, pi. 308 ; (Tacz.) F. 0. Sib. 0. p. 136 ;: 

 S. barbata, Pall. Zoogr. Ross. As. i. p. 318 (1811). 



Lapland's Ugh, Norweg. ; Lapp Uggla, Swed. ; Lapinpollo, 

 Pikku-huuhkaja, Finn. ; Lappis-skuolffi, Lapp. ; Kamennaja-sova f 

 Russ. ; Chakan, Maldschirga, Yakutsk. 



$ ad. (Lapland). Upper parts dark ashy brown blotched and 

 irregularly barred with white ; scapulars white centrally striped and 

 blotched with brown ; quills and tail dark ashy brown with whitish bars 

 vermiculated with greyish brown, the latter broadly tipped with dark brown ; 

 facial disk greyish white narrowly barred with dark brown ; margin of 

 the disk chocolate brown margined with white ; chin blackish brown ; 

 under parts dull white streaked with dark brown ; legs greyish white 

 narrowly barred with greyish brown ; bill yellowish horn ; iris light 

 yellow. Culmen 1'9, wing 18'0, tail 12*8, tarsus 2 - 55 inch. Male similar 

 but smaller. The young bird has the upper parts sooty chocolate brown 

 very little marked with white, the facial disk scarcely denned, the under 

 parts brown closely barred with dull white. 



Hob. Northern Scandinavia, Lapland, Finland, and North 

 Russia, rarely straying south to Germany; Northern Siberia, 

 and Kamchatka ; of rare occurrence in S.E. Siberia. 



Inhabits the large forests in the high north, and is as a rule shy 

 and wary, but at its nest it is extremely bold. Its cry consists 

 of three notes drawn out, the first hardest, the second lighter 

 and short, the third lightest and most prolonged of all, Hu, hu, 

 huuu. It feeds on small rodents especially lemmings and birds 

 of different kinds. It lays in old deserted nests of the larger 

 Raptores, and is also said to make its own nest ; in May it 

 deposits 3 to 7 pure white slightly glossy eggs, which in size 

 average about 2'20 by T67. 



In North America this owl is replaced by a nearly allied form 

 S. cinerea Gmel., which differs merely in being darker, with the 

 markings on the breast less distinctly defined. 



