Class II. LITTLE OWL. 271 



brown; the latter spotted with white; on the 

 breast is a mixture of white and brown ; the 

 belly is white, marked with a few brown spots ; 

 the tail of the same color with the back ; in each 

 feather barred with white, and adorned with 

 circular white spots, placed opposite one another 

 on both sides the shaft ; the legs and feet are 

 covered with feathers down to the claws. 



The Italians made use of this owl to decoy 

 small birds to the limed twig; the method of 

 which is exhibited in O Una's iiccelliera, p. 65. 



Mr. Stuart, the admirable author of the An- 

 tiquities oi Athens, informed me that this species 

 of owl was very common in Attica ; that they 

 were birds of passage, and appeared there the 

 beginning of April in great numbers ; that they 

 bred there; and that they retired at the same 

 time as the Storks, whose arrival they a little 

 preceded.* _, 



* John Hawkins, esq- to whom the editor is indebted for se- 

 veral observations on the species of birds which are common to 

 Greece and the British isles, suggests that the owl alluded to by 

 Mr. Stuart, as being migratory, is the eatable owl of Aristotle, 

 probably the (Scop5 of modern naturalists. Ed. 



