THE LONG-EARED OWL. 



87 



brown and white, and the "ears" are composed each of seven or eight blackish-brown feathers. 

 The under surface of the body is grayish-white intermixed with fawn and various longitudinal 

 brown streaks, and the legs are covered up to the claws with pale-brown plumage. The sharp 

 curved claws are black, as is the bill, and the eyes are of a light orange. 



As the facial disc is very conspicuous in this species, I shall take the opportunity of in- 

 serting a few remarks upon that portion of the Owl's structure which have already appeared 

 in "My Feathered Friends." 



"It is said that the use of this circle is to collect the rays of light and throw them upon 

 the eye, a provision necessary in dark nights. This principle is apparently carried out in the 



*g&KMa> 





URAL OWL. — Syniiuiu uralense. 



case of the Barn Owl, where the feathery circle, bein.2,- of a whitish hue. may be supposed to 

 act as a reflector of the light. But it must be remembered that in the Brown Owls this circle 

 is also brown, and therefore would rather absorb than reflect the light. Besides, objects are 

 seen by the light reflected from them to the eyes, while light reflected upon the eyes from the 

 sky would rather distract than aid the vision. When, on a bright day. we put our hands to 

 our eyes in order to view a distant object, we do so not to collect scattered rays and to force 

 them to converge upon the pupil, but rather to keep these scattered rays from interfering with 

 those that proceed directly from the object of vision. The same thing may be observed when 

 people look at a picture through a tube. 



"In my own opinion the radiating feathery circle is very simple in its operation, being only 

 a kind of circular splay window cut through the thick mass of plumage in which the head of 

 the bird is enveloped, in order to give it a wider sphere of vision, just as architects cut a splay 

 window' in the thick wall of a fort so as to permit a musket-barrel to be pointed in any direc- 

 tion. And the radiating formation of the feathers is preserved, because the natural elasticity 

 of their stems presses aside the softer downy plumage of the head, and preserves the circular 



