TAWNY OWL. 129 



the middle toe including the claw not quite two inches, the 

 hinder toe and claw a little more than one inch. 



In the adult male the bristling feathers of the face are 

 greyish white, intermixed with black near the beak, and 

 sparingly dashed with grey, particularly about the ears. The 

 frame which surrounds the face consists of small rounded 

 feathers, which are black in the centre, edged, spotted, and 

 barred with white and rufous ; about the ears and below the 

 beak the brown prevails, as does the grey about the eyes. The 

 forehead and top of the head are dark brown tinged with rufous ; 

 the neck and back feathers are dark brown in the centre 

 bordered with brownish grey, and spotted with dusky and 

 tinged with rufous. The wing-coverts are almost like the 

 back, with more spots of dark brown, in the shape of waving 

 lines : the large are sparingly spotted with white ; the shoulder 

 feathers are grey, spotted, streaked, and speckled with dusky, 

 the outer sides marked with pear-shaped irregular white spots 

 bordi-red with black ; and when the feathers are a little dis- 

 placed, these markings form so many interrupted lines. The 

 quills are barred with dusky on a ground of rusty yellow ; 

 the secondary quill feathers are marked in the same manner, 

 but the bars are narrower and more confused ; the tail 

 feathers are a pale grey, speckled and dusked with dark 

 brown, the tips white ; these feathers are also barred, but 

 the bars are frequently only perceptible on the inner webs. 

 The under wing-coverts are white barred with pale brown ; 

 the underparts of the tail and quill feathers the same but paler. 

 The feathers of the neck and breast are dirty white, marked 

 wich rust-coloured brown in the middle, with a dusky streak 

 down the shafts, which terminates in zig-zag lines or spots. 

 On the lower part of the breast these dusky markings form 

 frequently indistinct crosses ; the belly and under tail coverts 

 are white, with brown shaft streaks; the covering of the 

 legs yellowish white, speckled with brown. 



The principal distinction in the colouring of these owls 

 c:>nsLts in the ground c6lour, as the markings are nearly all 



