484 ASIO 



ide of the eye blackish, the ruff dull white tipped with black ; under 

 parts warm buff, streaked and on the abdomen minutely barred with 

 brownish black ; legs to the toes covered with pale ochreous feathers ; bill 

 dark horn; iris ochreous yellow; claws dark horn. Culmen I'l, wing 

 11 -2, tail 5'9, tarsus 1*6 inch. The female is rather larger, darker, and 

 usually more rufescent. 



Hal}. Europe generally, about as far north as 59 or 60 N. 

 Lat. ; rarer in the Azores, Canaries, and North Africa ; Asia east 

 to Japan, north to southern Siberia and south to Northern India. 



Throughout the major portion of its range it is a resident, 

 and frequents wooded districts and does not, like some of its 

 allies, visit inhabited places and ruins. It is almost strictly 

 nocturnal, hiding away in some sheltered place during the day, 

 from which it emerges in the evening and hunts after its prey 

 all the night. Its flight is soft and noiseless, and its call-note 

 is a deep hoot. It feeds chiefly on mice but also on large 

 insects and small birds. It nests in wooded localities usually 

 taking possession of a deserted squirrel's drey, or the nest of a 

 Crow or Raptor, which it repairs carefully, and lines with 

 feathers or some other soft material, and from March to May, 

 according to latitude, deposits 3 to 4, sometimes as many as 

 6 pure white, smooth, but not glossy eggs which measure about 

 1-63 by 1-31. 



In North America this owl is replaced by a very closely 

 allied species, Otus americanus Stephens, which differs only in 

 having the upper parts darker and more clouded and the under 

 parts marked with but few longitudinal, and many transverse 

 stripes. 



689. SHORT-EARED OWL. 

 ASIO ACCIPITRINUS. 



Asio accipitrimis (Pall.)} Reis. Russ. Reichs, i. p. 455 (1771) ; Newton, i. 

 p. 163 ; Dresser, v. p. 257, pi. 304 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. ii. 

 p. 234 ; (Tacz.), F. 0. Sib. O. p. 157 ; Blanf, F. Brit. Ind. Birds, 

 iii. p. 271 ; Saunders, p. 295 ; Ridgway, p. 258 ; A. brachyotus, 

 (Forst.) Phil. Trans. Ixii. p. 384 (1772) ; (Naum.), i. p. 459, Taf. 45, 

 fig. 2 ; (Hewitson), i. p. 58, pi. xvii. fig. 2 ; Gould, B. of E. pi. 40 ; 

 id. B. of Gt. Brit. pi. 32 ; Audub. B. of N. Am. pi. 432 ; Lilford, i. 

 p. 95, pi. 45 ; A. sandwichensis (Bloxh.), in Byron's Voy. of H. M.S. 

 Blonde, App.p. 250 (1826) ; A. galapagoensis (Gould), P.Z.S. 1837 

 p. 10 ; A. cassinii (Brew.), Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 1856, p. 321. 



Due a courtes oreilles, French ; Mocho, Portug. ; JBulto, 



Lechuza-campestre, Span. ; Gufo di Padule, Ital. ; Sumpf- 



hreule, German ; Velduil, Dutch ; Kortoret- Ugh, Norweg. ; 



