SHORT-EARED OWL. 307 
remarkably concave below, barred with six broad bars of brown, and 
as many narrow ones of white ; the back and shoulders have a cast of 
chestnut; at each internal angle of the eye, is a broad spot of black + 
the plumage of the tadiated circle round the eye ends in long black 
hairs;.and the bill is encompassed by others of-a longer, ana more 
bristly kind. These probably serve to guard the, eye when any danger 
approaches it in sweeping hastily through the woods ; and those usually 
found on flycatchers may have the same intention ‘to fulfil; for, on the 
slightest\touch of the point of any of these hairs, the nictitant mem- 
brane was instantly thrown over the eye. 
The female is twenty-two inches long, and four feet in extent; the 
chief difference of color consists in her wings being broadly spotted 
with white; the shoulder being a plain chocolate brown; the tail ex: 
tends considerably beyond the tips of the wings; the bill is much 
larger, and of a more golden yellow; iris of the eye, the same as that 
of the male. , 
The different character of the feathers of this; and, I believe, of 
most Owls, is really surprising. Those that surround the bill differ 
little from bristles; those that surround the region of the eyes afe 
exceedingly open, and unwebbed; these are bounded by another set, 
generally proceeding from the external edge of the ear, of a most pe- 
culiar small, narrow, velvety kind, whose fibres.are so exquisitely fine, 
as to be invisible to the naked eye ; above, the plumage has one gen- 
eral character at the surface, calculated to repel rain and moisture ;- 
but, towards the roots, it is of the most soft, loose, and downy-substance 
in nature —so much so, that it may be touched without being felt; 
the webs of the wing-quills are also of a delicate softness, covered 
with an almost imperceptible hair, and edged with a loose silky down, 
so that the owner passes through the air without interrupting the most 
profound silence. Who cannot, perceive the hand of God in all these 
things ? 
SHORT-EARED OWL.—STRIX BRACHYOTOS.— Fic. 149. 
Turton, Syst. p. 167. — Arct. Zool. p. 229, No. 116.— Lath. i. 124.— La chouette, 
ou la grand chevéche, Buff. i. Pl. enl. 438. — Peale’s Museum, No. 440. 
OTUS. BRACHYOTOS. — Cuvirr.* 
* 
Short-eared Owl, Bew. Br. Birds, i. p. 48, 50.— Selby, Ilust. Br. Orn. i. p. 54. 
pl. 21.— Hibou brachyote, ‘Temm. Man. i. p- 99.— La Chouette, ou le moyen 
duc, 4 Huppes courtes, Cuv. Regn. Anim. i. p, 328. —Otus brachyotus, Flem. 
Br. Anim. p. 56.— Strix brachyotos, Bonap. Synop. p. 37.— Swix brachyota, 
North. Zool. p- 75. a 
Tuts is another species common to both continents, being found in 
Britain as far north as the Orkney Isles, where it also breeds, building 
This Owl, as Wilson observes, is also common to both continents, but the 
British history of it is comparatively unknown. The following observations may 
perhaps advance some parts of it: — : 
