European Long-eared Owl 517 



eral designation given above. The characters which serve to separate them 

 are, if it is permissible to use the expression, mainly the reverse of those which 

 marked the first subfamily, viz., the breast-bone is provided with notches 

 on its lower border; the inner toe is decidedly shorter than the middle one, the 

 claw of which is without serrations on its inner edge, while the first quill is 

 shorter than the third, and from one to six of the quills have their inner 

 webs sinuated. 



The attempt has been made to divide this subfamily up into a number of 

 groups, which have been called subfamilies, the whole group being dignified 

 by family rank, but the venture has not been very successful. However, it 

 may be well enough to follow the sequence of these so-called subfamilies, bear- 

 ing in mind that they do not rest on very ample or secure foundations. 



The first of these (Asionina) includes the Long-eared and Short-eared Owls, 

 which to the number of a dozen or more forms are comprised in the genus Asio. 

 They are birds of medium size with a relatively small head and small eyes, well- 

 developed or rudimentary ear-tufts, and a very large ear-conch which is unsym- 

 metrical on the opposite sides of the head ; the bill is rather weak and compressed, 

 with the cere much arched, while the tail is about half the length of the wing and 

 rounded, and only the first, or first and second, outer primary has the inner web 

 emarginated. 



European Long-eared Owl. The oldest and in some respects best-known 

 species is the European Long-eared Owl (A. otus), a bird about fourteen inches 

 in length, which ranges over Europe generally, Asia as far east as Japan and 

 China, and south to northern Africa and northwestern India. It is a beautifully 

 mottled bird, the upper parts being a blackish brown, finely mottled with brown 

 and gray and streaked with dark brown. The facial disk is a warm buff, with 

 grayish black margin and outer rim. The lower parts are a warm buff and 

 gray with blackish streaks and minute transverse bars, while the tail is ochreous 

 barred and slightly vermiculated with brown. The bill and claws are dark 

 horn-color and the iris orange -yellow. 



The Long-eared Owl is a resident species throughout the larger part of its 

 range, although to the eastward it becomes somewhat migratory. It shuns 

 habitations and ruins and frequents wooded districts, spending the day among 

 the dense branches of some evergreen tree with its slim body pressed against 

 the larger limbs and at such times is almost invisible. That it can see in the 

 daytime, however, is attested by some observers who have seen it "sailing quietly 

 along, as if hawking, on a bright sunny day." But it is mainly nocturnal, becom- 

 ing active at dusk and remaining so during the entire night, returning at dawn 

 to its seclusion in the dense trees. Quite unlike most Owls, it is more or less 

 gregarious, as many as a dozen or fifteen being often found in company. On 

 this point Mr. Abel Chapman says: "As soon as the young are fledged the whole 

 of the Owls associated together, perhaps three or four broods, old and young 

 in a single family, choose a thick black fir for their abode. Here they all passed 

 the day. To this particular tree the whole of the Owl-life of these woods resorted 

 regularly at dawn, and in it slept away the hours of daylight, hidden amongst 



