LITTLE OWL. 



399 



Fiff. ]. 



This was the only time I ever heard the note of this owl. Frequently 

 I have had it alive, but it was invariably silent, and, like the 8trix flam- 

 mea, would sometimes feign itself dead ; and last winter I shot one 

 which was placed upon its back in a scale, and handled a good deal, 

 yet it shewed no signs of life until thrown into a box, when it started 

 up, and looked about sharply enough." 



A male from Dr T. M. Brewer of Boston, has the roof of the 

 mouth concave, with two narrow longitudinal ridges, and covered with 

 minute papillae ; the posterior aperture of the nares elliptical behind, 

 2| twelfths long, with an anterior slit 4 twelfths long. The tongue is 

 very small, 4^ twelfths long, deeply emarginate and finely papillate at 

 the base, its upper surface slightly concave, its tip rounded. The width 

 of the mouth is 8^ twelfths. The external aperture of the ear, Fig. 1, is of 

 enormous size, extending from the 

 level of the top of the head in a 

 semicircular curve to below the 

 aperture of the mouth, being 1 

 inch 9 twelfths along its posterior 

 margin. It is bounded anteriorly by 

 an elevated operculum in its whole 

 length, and its posterior margin is 

 similar. The anterior part of this 

 conch is formed by the posterior 



third of the eye-ball covered by the skin, and the entrance to the in- 

 ternal ear is of a large size, being 5 twelfths in length, and 2^ twelfths 

 in its greatest breadth. The ear is thus similar in form to that of Strix 

 otus and Strix hrachyotus. 



The oesophagus, Fig. 2, abc,\s 3 inches 2 twelfths long, of the 

 average width of 7 twelfths, being uniform, without dilatation. The 

 lobes of the liver are large, nearly equal, the left 1 inch 1^ twelfth 

 long, the right 1 inch 3 twelfths. The stomach, cde, is very large, 

 roundish, a little compressed, 1 inch 3 twelfths in length, 1 inch 2 

 twelfths in breadth. Its muscular coat is extremely thin, and com- 

 posed of a single series of fasciculi ; its inner coat smooth and soft. 

 The proventricular glands are globular, forming a belt 6 twelfths in 

 breadth. The stomach is filled with hair and bones of small qua- 

 drupeds, including the skull of an arvicola. The duodenum, efg, curves 

 in the usual manner, at the distance of 2 inches 5 twelfths. The 



