490 BUBO 



Berguf, Swed. ; Pall/iskuolffi, Lidno, Lapp. ; Hmihkaja, Finn. ; 

 Filin, Russ. 



<$ ail. (Sweden). Upper parts generally reddish ochreous or reddish 

 rown, marked and marbled with black ; rump and tipper tail-coverts 

 rusty rufous barred with black ; quills blackish with yellowish brown, 

 the bars vermiculated with black ; tail rufescent ochreous, barred and 

 marbled with black ; two conspicuous tufts on the head ; facial disk rufous 

 grey speckled and faintly barred with black ; throat white ; under parts 

 brownish ochreous marked and barred with black, the feathered legs more 

 rufous and less barred ; bill and claws blackish horn ; iris rich orange. 

 Gulmen 2'5, wing 18'0, tail 10'5, tarsus 3'1 inch. The female differs only 

 in being somewhat larger. 



Hob. Europe generally, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, 

 but somewhat rare in North Africa ; a rare straggler to Great 

 Britain; does not seem to occur far east of the Ural in the 

 north, but is met with in the Himalayas. 



Frequents forests and rocky localities and is nocturnal in its 

 habits, though not dazed by the sunlight when disturbed by 

 day. Its cry is a loud, deep hu, hu modulated in various ways. 

 It is one of the boldest of our European birds of prey and very 

 destructive to game, but it does not disdain rats, mice, hares, 

 rabbits, crows, etc., etc. It nests in the rocks or on the ground, 

 or in the forests will utilize the nest of one of the larger birds 

 of prey, and from March to May, according to latitude, it 

 .deposits 2 or 3, seldom 4, roundish pure white eggs, somewhat 

 rough in grain of shell, which average about 2'29 by T91. 



697. SUBSP. BUBO TURCOMANUS. 



Bubo turcomanus (Eversm.), Add. Zoogr. Ross. As. i. p. 3 (1835) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Br. Mus. ii. p. 17 (partim). 



ad. (Tibet). Differs from B. ignavus in being as a rule slightly 

 smaller, in having the under parts more barred and less striped with black ; 

 upper parts paler and less marked with blackish. 



Hal. Central Asia, west to the Ural, east to Turkestan and 

 Tibet. 



698. SUBSP. BUBO SIBIRICUS. 



" Bubo sibiricus, Licht," (Susemihl) Vog. Eur. Taf. 44 (1841) ; ? Licht. 

 Nomencl. Av. p. 7 (1854) ; Tacz. F. 0. Sib. 0. p. 145 ; B. turcomanus, 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. ii. p. 17 (partim, nee. Eversm.). 



ad. (Siberia). Differs from B. ignavus in having the ground colour of 

 the plumage white, the upper parts, wings, and tail here and there faintly 

 washed with pale rufescent ochreous, the ground colour of the under parts 



