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O R D. I. G F N U S IL OWL. 



CHARACTER OF THE GENUS OWL. 



Bill, ftrong and hooked. 

 Nostrils, moftly covered with feathers. 

 Tongue, Ibort and blunt at the end. 



Head, large and round : the eyes are furrounded with a circular rim of ftiff 

 feathers, which meet on the beak, and ftand ereft. 



Owls are noaurnal birds, feeding in the night only. They are a very ftrong 

 deftruftive race, being great devourers. They all have a difagreeable fcreaming 

 note, and hallow to each other in the night, with a voice as powerful as that of 

 a man. 



SPECIES I. GREAT CRESTED OWL. 

 PL 23. 

 Strix Bubo. Lin. Syft. I. p. 13 1. 

 Le grand Due. BriJ. Orn. I. p. 477- 

 This is a large bird, nearly equal to an eagle in fizej and is by fome authors 

 named the great horned owl, by others the great cared owl : neither of which 

 names gives the leaft idea of the two tufts of feathers on the top of the head; 

 but, as it is too common in names given to fubjefts in natural hiftory from whim 

 or caprice, ferves only to miQead and confound ; not having the leaft reference 

 either to the form, colour, or manners of the fubjeft. This bird is in length 

 twenty-two inches, and in breadth nearly five feet. On the top of the head are 

 two tufts of feathers inclining backward. The eyes are of a bright yellow : top 

 of the head, back, and wings, of a bright brown colour, marked with fpots of 

 dark brown, and lines of black: breaft, and belly, orange brown, finely varied 

 with fpots, fpecks, and lines, of brown and black : wings long: tail fliort, and 

 barred with dull black ; under part grey brown, clouded with dark grey : legs 

 ftiort, very ftrong, and covered to the claws with a yellowifh down: claws re- 

 markably 'large, and hooked. This is not a common fpecies, but has been ftiot 

 in Scotland, Yorkfhire, and Suffex, and feen feveral times in the woods of Kent. 



