LITTLE COLUMBIAN OWL. 117 



Strix passerina, Linn. Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 133. 



Chouette Cheveche, Strix passerina, Temm. Man. d'Orn., p. 92. 



Little Night Owl, Strix passerina, Aud., vol. v. p. 269. 



Female. 



Tail rather short, arched, nearly even; wings almost as long as the tail, 

 the outer four quills cut out on the inner web, the outer five sinuated on the 

 outer; filaments of the first free and slightly recurved, as are those of the 

 second and third beyond the sinus. General colour of upper parts chocolate- 

 brown, the feather of the head with an oblong median white mark; hind neck 

 with very large white spots, forming a conspicuous patch; on the back most 

 of the feathers with a single large subterminal roundish spot, as is the case 

 with the scapulars and wing-coverts, most of which, however, have two or 

 more spots; quills with marginal reddish-white spots on both webs, the third 

 with six on the outer and four on the inner, with two very faint pale bars 

 toward the end; the tail similarly marked with four bands of transversely 

 oblong, reddish-white spots; feathers of the anterior part of the disk whitish, 

 with black shafts, of the lower part whitish, of the hind part brown tipped 

 with greyish-white; a broad band of white crossing the throat, and curving 

 upwards on either side to the ear; a patch of white on the lower part of the 

 fore-neck; between these a brownish-grey band. Lower parts dull yellowish- 

 white, each feather with a broad longitudinal band of chocolate-brown; 

 abdomen and lower tail-coverts unspotted; tarsal feathers dull white. 



Female, 10-|; wing from flexure 6^; tail 3^. 



LITTLE COLUMBIAN OWL. 



Surnia passerinoides, Temm. 

 PLATE XXX.— Male. 



Of this pretty little Owl I can only say that the single specimen from 

 which I made the two figures in the plate before you, was sent to me by 

 Mr. Townsend, along with the following notice respecting it: — "I shot this 

 bird on the Columbia River, near Fort Vancouver, in the month of Novem- 

 ber. I first saw it on wing about mid-day, and its curious jerking or undu- 

 lating flight struck me as extremely peculiar, and induced me to follow and 

 secure it. It soon alighted upon a high branch of a pine tree, and I shot it 

 with my rifle, the only gun I had with me, as I was at the time engaged in 



