LEAST EUROPEAN SPARROW OWL. 141 
feathers marked with four or five large white spots on the inner barb, smaller 
on the outer, forming in the male four white bands, and in the female three. 
The smallest of European Owls. Length, male six inches, female about 
seven inches. 
In trie first edition this bird was described under the name given to 
it by Daudin, in consequence of the great confusion occasioned by 
the real Linnaean name of S. passerina being applied to the well-known 
Little Owl, now, I hope, effectually settled down in life as Carene 
noctua, by Professor Newton in his new edition of "Yarrell's Birds 
of Great Britain." I trust naturalists will never forsake this name, 
and allow the bird I am about to describe to be equally well-known 
as Glaucidium passerinum, the real Strix passerina of Linnaeus. 
Temminck adopted Latham's name, S. acadica, to designate this bird; 
but it is quite certain that the S. acadica of Latham is the North 
American species, a bird not known in Europe, and named, as Mr. 
Newton suggests, after its habitat Acadie, that is, Nova Scotia. 
There are several "Little Owls" which may, more or less, be con- 
founded with each other. I will briefly notice some of these, so that 
the ground may be cleared, I trust, of all obscurity or doubt: — 
G. passerinum. — The subject of the present notice, and the synonymy 
of which I have given at length above. The S. passerina of Linnaeus. 
S. psilodactyla of Linnaeus, Brehm, and Degland; the S. passerina of 
Gmelin, Latham, Meyer, Wolff, Temminck, Vieillot, Schinz, and the 
English, authors. S. noctua of Hetzius and Schlegel. Noctua passerina 
of Cuvier, Athene noctua of Gray, and Carene noctua of Newton. This 
bird, the Little Owl of the English lists, is readily distinguished from 
G. passerinum by its greater size, shorter tail, different disposition of 
colours, and by the shortness of the feathers on the tarsi, and the sub- 
stitution of down for feathers on the toes. It is figured by Edwards, 
Lewin, Gould, Yarrell, and others. It is fully one third larger than 
passerina. 
S. acadica of Gmelin, and S. acadiensis of Latham. A North 
American species, well figured by Wilson in his "American Birds," 
and afterwards by Audubon, pi. 199. Figured also by Latham in his 
"General Synopsis," vol. i., pi. 5, fig. ii.; and described at length by 
Swainson, in the "Fauna Boreali Americana," Birds, p. 97, in which 
its distinction from any of the European species is clearly established. 
This is the Nyctale acadica of Bonaparte, and of Gray's list; it is 
designated Strix passerina by Wilson, and TJlula acadica by Audubon. 
Athene perlata, figured and described by Le Vaillant, in his "Oiseaux 
d' Afrique." This is the Noctua occipitalis of Cuvier, the Strix perlata 
