OWL. 141 



propriety this has been called Flammeata. The legs too are bet- 

 ter clothed with feathers, and the bill quite brown, being in the 

 Barn Owl whitifh, with the tips only brown. The female is paler 

 than the male. 



M.de Buffon feems, acquainted with this bird, and fays it does, 

 not frequent woods in the manner of the laft fpecies; for the moft 

 part inhabiting rocks and quarries; feldom or never being feen in 

 woods : that it is considerably lefs than the laft, being only ele- 

 ven inches- from the tip of the bill to the end of the claws. 



From it's being likened by the above author to the Barn Owl, 

 by it's having yellow irides, by it's being fo much lefs in fize, 

 and frequenting cavernous and rocky places rather than forefts, it 

 fhould feem to be quite a> different bird from the Brown Owl de- 

 fcribed by Mr. Pennant, N° 69, notwithstanding fome of the fy- 

 nonyms are the fame with both thofe of Linn<eus and Buff on. Mr.. 

 Pennant fays that the bird he means agrees with the Tawny Owl 

 entirely in the markings, differing only in colour; his bird having 

 the head, wings, and back, of a deep brown, fpotted with blacky 

 as in the other : wings, fcapulars, and quills, the fame : the breaft 

 of a pale afh, mixed with tawny, and marked with oblong jagged 

 fpots : the feet too feathered to the claws : the circle of the face 

 afh-coloured, fpotted with brown. He likewife fays that they 

 both inhabit woods. This author does not mention the irides 

 in his defcription, but fays that thofe of the Tawny Owl are 

 dufky. 



I have in my collection two Wood Owls, both not much differ- 

 ing in the general markings, but one of them much inclining to 

 tawny, where the other is brown : both of thefe had the eyes of a 

 blue black, as M. de Buff on expreffes thofe of the. Tawny Owl to 



be*; 



