148 STRIGID A. 
feathers, and lays two white eggs. When the hunters are 
shooting grouse, this bird is occasionally attracted by the 
report of the gun, and is often bold enough, on a bird 
being killed, to pounce down upon it, though it may be 
unable from its size to carry it off. It is also known to 
hover round the fires made by the natives at night.” 
The following description is from a specimen killed in 
Lapland, and presented to the Museum of the Zoological 
Society by Captain Everett:—'The beak is white; the 
irides straw-yellow; facial disk dull white, bounded on 
the sides by a semilunar dark purplish brown patch ex- 
tending from the ears downwards; the head, back of the 
neck, and upper part of the shoulders, mottled with dusky 
black and dull white ; back and wings dark umber brown ; 
lower part of the back barred with dull white; tertials 
elongated, loose, and downy in texture, covering great 
part of the wing, and barred alternately with dusky 
brown and white; upper surface of tail-feathers dusky 
brown, with six or seven narrow bars of dull white, and 
a broader terminal band of the same colour. Chin dusky ; 
throat dull white; across the upper part of the breast a 
broad band of dull white; breast, belly, and under tail- 
coverts, dull white, with numerous narrow transverse bars 
of dusky brown ; under surface of tail-feathers barred al- 
ternately with greyish brown and dull white; the tail 
long; tarsi and toes covered with short feathers of grey- 
ish white; claws white at the base, tipped with bluish 
black. 
The whole length of the bird is about seventeen inches. 
The female differs from the male in being somewhat 
larger in size, and the plumage is lighter in colour. 
