140 STRIGID A. 
counties of England, but has not been recognised by prac- 
tical ornithologists as existing in Ireland. It occurs also 
in the northern counties of England, but is more rare in 
Scotland. Mr. Low includes it among the birds of Orkney 
that are seen in summer, but not in the winter. It in- 
habits Scandinavia, Lapland, Russia, the wooded countries 
of the European continent, and is found in Spain, Italy, 
Sicily, and Algeria; it was seen by Mr. Strickland as far to 
the southward and eastward as Smyrna. M. Temminck 
includes this Owl in his Catalogue of the Birds of Japan. 
The adult male has the head large; the beak whitish 
horn colour: the eyes large and full; the irides dark blue, 
almost black: the facial disk greyish white, defined by a 
dark brown marginal line; top of the head, neck, back, 
and wings, a mixture of ash grey, mottled with two shades 
of brown; a descending line of white spots at the edge of 
the scapulars, and another on the edge of the wing-coverts ; 
wing-primaries barred with dull white and dark brown, the 
wings not reaching to the middle of the tail ; upper surface 
of the tail-feathers barred with two shades of brown, the 
central pair of feathers bemg the most uniform in colour. 
The under surface of the body greyish white, mottled and 
streaked longitudinally with pale and dark brown ; under 
tail-coverts white; under surface of tail-feathers greyish 
white, barred transversely with reddish brown; legs and 
toes covered with short greyish white feathers ; claws horn 
white at the base, becoming darker towards the tip. The 
whole length about fifteen inches. 
The females are larger, and much more ferruginous or 
tawny in the general colour of their plumage. Young 
males are for a considerable time, probably till their second 
autumn, similar in colour to the females. 
