100 



SCOPS EAEED OWL. 



Owl is generally made of grass, and is placed about half-way up some convenient pine- 

 tree. The eggs are seldom more than two in number, are pure white in colour, and not 

 quite so globular as is the case with the generality of Owls' eggs. 



The colour of this bird is more rich and better defined than that of the Little Owl. 

 The whole of the upper parts of the body are a rich chocolate-brown, dotted and splashed 

 witli many white markings, which are very mmute upon tlie top of the head, and larger 

 upon the back and wings, some indeed being arranged on the lower portions of the wings 

 so as to form irregular stripes. Similar white spots are placed on the tail, which is usually 

 of a dark brown. The eye disk is greyish-white, excepting a bold black-brown ring just 

 round the eye. The under portions of the body are greyish-white, covered with numerous 

 brown bars and spots, and the plumage of the legs and toes is also grey-white sprinkled 

 with brown spots. The size of the Tengmalm's Owl is nearly the same as that of the 

 Little Owl. 



We now arrive at a large group of 

 Owls which are remarkable for two tufts 

 of feathers which rise from the head, and 

 occupy nearly the same relative position 

 as the ears of quadrupeds. These " ears," 

 as they are called, have, however, nothing 

 to do with the organs of hearing, but are 

 simply tufts of feathers, which can be 

 raised or depressed at the will of the bird, 

 and give a most singular expression to the 

 countenance. 



The first of these birds is the Scops 

 Eaeed Owl, a most singular little creature, 

 which is sometimes, though rarely, taken 

 in England, and has therefore been placed 

 in the catalogue of British Birds. 



The geographical range of this species 

 is very great, specimens now in the 

 British Museum having been taken in 

 Germany and several parts of Europe, 

 India, Malacca, China, Gambia, and the 

 Cape of Good Hope. It is by no means 

 an uncommon bu'd in Southern Europe, 

 and is said even to have bred several 

 times in England. A very good descrip- 

 tion is given of the habits of the Scops 

 Eared Owl by Mr. Spence. 



" This Owl, which in summer is very 

 common in Italy, is remarkable for the constancy and regularity with which it utters its 

 peculiar note or cry. It does not merely ' to the moon complain,' but keeps repeating 

 its plaintive and monotonous cry of Kew ! hew ! (whence its Florentine name of Chiu, 

 pronounced almost exactly like the English letter Q) in the regular intervals of about 

 two seconds the livelong night, and until one is used to it, nothing can well be more 

 wearisome. Towards the end of April, last year, 1830, one of these Owls established 

 itself in the large Jardin Anglais, behind the house where we resided at Florence, and 

 until our departure for Switzerland in the beginning of June, I recollect but one or two 

 instances in which it was not constantly to be heard, as if in spite to the nightingales, 

 who abounded there from nightfall to midnight (and probably much later), whenever I 

 chanced to be in the back part of the house, or took a friend to listen to it, and always 

 with precisely the same unwearied cry, and the intervals between each as regular as 

 the tickings of a pendulum. 



This species of Owl, according to Professor Savi's excellent Ornitologia Toscana, 

 Vol. I. p. T-i, is the only Italian species which migrates ; passing the winter in Africa and 



SCOPS EARED OWL.— i!,>/tiaHci- Scojis. 



