TENGMALM 1 S OWL. 149 



a large scale over the root of the claws. The tarsus measures 

 nearly an inch and a quarter, the middle toe the same in- 

 cluding its long claw, the claw alone in the arc being almost 

 seven lines ; the hinder toe and claw is about three quarters 

 of an inch long. 



The feathering of the face is white, streaked about the 

 cheeks and over the eyes with dusky, and is between the 

 beak and eyes very long ; close before the latter is a black 

 patch ; the feathers of the ring which forms the border of the 

 face are white with brown tips. The whole of the upper 

 feathering of this bird is fallow-brown, the top of the head 

 closely speckled with small oval white spots ; the back 

 of the neck, the back and shoulders are also spotted with 

 white, the spots being largest and most conspicuous on the 

 shoulders. The wing-coverts are fallow-brown, the lesser 

 without spots, the larger sparingly spotted on the edges 

 of the outer webs with white ; the quill-feathers are also 

 fallow-brown, with round corresponding spots on the edges 

 of both webs ; the secondary quills have a few spots, and 

 the tertials have more markings which assume rather a square 

 form. The coverts under the wings are white, spotted spar- 

 ingly with brown. The tail is also fallow-brown, marked 

 with four or five roundish corresponding white spots. The 

 breast and belly are white, spotted and streaked with reddish- 

 brown. On the whole of the under parts the white pre- 

 dominates, the feathers being only tipped with brown ; the 

 covering of the legs and feet, and the long feathers of the 

 vent, are white, the former a little tinged with yellow. 



It is difficult to know the female from the male unless 

 compared together, when the following distinctions may be 

 observed ; — the white of the face is dirty, the black spot 

 before the eye smaller and paler, the lower part of the 

 body more strongly spotted, and the brown of the upper 

 parts more decided than in the male. 



