574 LONG-EARED OWL. 
other birds in low bushes. Mr Hurcnins says it lays in April, and 
that the young fly in May; and Mr Drummonp found a nest on the 
ground in the same neighbourhood, containing three eggs, on the 5th 
of July, and killed both the birds. On comparing the above-mention- 
ed eggs with those of the English Long-eared Owl, the American ones 
proved to be smaller, measuring only an inch and a half in length, and 
1.27 inches in breadth ; while the English ones measured 1.8 inch im 
length, and 1} in breadth. ‘The form and colour were the same in 
both.” 
The food of this Owl consists of rats, mice, and other small qua- 
drupeds, as well as birds of various species; its stomach having been 
found by me crammed with feathers and other remains of the latter. 
There is a marked difference between the sexes. The males are 
not only smaller than the females, but darker; and this has tempted 
me to consider the Strix Mexicanus of Mr Swainson and the Prinee of 
Musienano as merely a large female of our Long-eared Owl. 
Srrix Orus, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 132.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 53.—Ch. 
Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 37. 
Lone-EARED Ow t, Strix Orus, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. vi. p. 52, pl. 50, fig. 1. 
Srrix Orus, Lone-EarED Owt, Richards. and Swains. Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. 
p- 72. 
Lone-EARED Ow 1, Nuttall, Manual, vol. i. p. 130. 
Adult Male. Plate CCCLX XXIII. 
Bill short, stout ; upper mandible with its dorsal line slightly eurved 
from the base, towards the end decurved, the ridge broad at the base, 
narrowed anteriorly, convex in its whole extent, the sides sloping at 
the base, convex towards the tip, the edges soft and obtuse as far as the 
nostrils, then sharp and barred to the end, below the nostrils inflected, 
afterwards direct, the tip acute, and at its extremity descending ob- 
liquely ; the cere of moderate length, feathered on the sides ; the lower 
mandible straight, its angle elongated, wide, and rounded, the dorsal 
line very short and slightly convex, the back and sides convex, the 
edges toward the end sharp and inflected, their outline decurved and 
with a slight sinus on each side, the tip obliquely truncate. Nostrils 
medial, lateral, large, oblique, oblong, in the fore edge of the cere. 
