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Genus SCOPS. 



Asio apud Brisson, Orn. i. p. 495 (1760). 



Strix apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 132 (1766). 



Stryx apud Pallas, Reis. Russ. Reichs, i. p. - 456 (1771). 



Scops, Savigny, Syst. Ois. de l'Egypte, p. 47 (1810). 



Bubo apud Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 549. 



Ephialtes apud Keyserling & Blasius, Wirbelth. Eur. p. xxxiii (1840). 



This group of small horned Owls contains, according to Mr. Sharpe, twenty-five species (some of 

 which he again subdivides into several subspecies), which inhabit the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, 

 Oriental, Nearctic, and Neotropical Regions, only one species being found in the Western 

 Palsearctic Region. 



These Owls are by no means strictly nocturnal ; for they may be seen flying about at midday 

 during the brightest sunshine. But it would appear that this is rather the exception than the 

 rule ; for their clear ringing note is heard almost all through the night. Their flight is soft and 

 noiseless ; and they affect groves, gardens, and well-wooded places. With us in Europe these 

 birds are chiefly migratory, passing south at the approach of winter. They feed on small 

 mammals and birds and especially on large insects of various kinds. They nest in hollow trees, 

 and deposit several small roundish white eggs. 



Scops giu, the type of the genus, has the bill decurved from the base, the under mandible 

 notched, cere small ; the nostrils round, concealed by bristly feathers ; head rather small, fur- 

 nished with two tufts of feathers ; facial disk incomplete ; auditory conch small, without oper- 

 culum ; wings long, reaching to the end of the tail, the first quill about equal to the fifth, the 

 third longest ; tail short, square ; tarsi rather long, feathered in front nearly to the base of the 

 toes, which are bare ; claws moderate, curved, acute. 



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