LITTLE OWL. 309 
aspect of a keen, vigorous, and active bird; and is reputed to be an 
excellent mouser. It flies frequently by day, and, particularly in dark 
cloudy weather, takes short flights; and, when sitting and looking 
sharply around, erects the two slight feathers that constitute its horns, 
which are at such times very noticeable; but, otherwise, not perceiva- 
ble. No person on slightly examining this bird after being shot, would 
suspect it to be furnished with horns; nor are they discovered but by 
careful search, or previous observation on the living bird. Bewick, in 
his History of British Birds, remarks, that this species is sometimes 
seen in companies, —twenty-eight of them having been once counted 
in a turnip field in November. 
Length, fifteen inches; extent, three feet four inches ; general color 
above, dark brown, the feathers broadly skirted with pale yellowish 
brown; bill, large, black ; irides, rich golden yellow, placed in a bed 
of deep black, which radiates outwards all around, except towards the 
bill, where the plumage is whitish; ears, bordered with a semicircular 
line of black and.tawny yellow dots ; tail, rounded, longer than usual 
with Owls, crossed with five bands of dark brown, and as many of 
yellow ochre, some of the latter have central spots of dark brown, the 
whole tipped with white quills also banded with dark brown and yel- 
low ochre; breast and belly streaked with dark brown, on a ground of 
yellowish; legs, thighs, and vent, plain dull yellow; tips of the three 
first quill-feathers, black; legs, clothed to the claws, which are black, 
curved to about the quarter of a circle, and exceedingly sharp. 
The female I have never seen; but she is said to be somewhat 
larger, and much darker, and the spots on the breast larger, and more 
numerous.* 
LITTLE OWL.—STRIX PASSERINA. —Fie. 150. 
Arct. Zool. 236, No. 126.— Turton, Syst. 112.— Peale’s Museum, No. 522. 
STRIX ACADICA. — Gurwin.t 
Chouette chevéchette, Temm. Man. i. p. 96.—Strix acadica, Bonap. Synop. p. 
38.— Monog. sinot strigi inauric. osserv. sulla, 2d edit. ded Reg. Anim. Cuv. p. 
52. — Strix acadica, American Sparrow Owl, North. Zool. p. 97. 
Turs is one of the least of its whole genus; but, like many other 
little folks, makes up, in neatness of general form and appearance, for 
t 
* The female is nearly of the same size with the male; the colors are all of a 
browned tinge, the markings more clouded and indistinct 3 the white of the lower 
parts, and under the wings, is less pure, and the belly and vent are more thickly 
dashed with black streaks; the cars are nearly of the same length with the other 
feathers, but can be easily distinguished. She is always foremost to attack any 
intruder on her nest or young. — Ep. 
+ There is so much alliance between many of the Small Owls, that it is a matter 
of surprise more species have not been confounded. Wilson appears to have been 
mistaken, or to have confounded the name at least of the Little Owl; and, on the 
authority of Temminck and Bonaparte, we have given it as above, that of acadica. 
Itis a native of both Continents, but does not yet appear to have reached the 
British shores. According tou Temminck, it is found in the deep, German forests, 
