Class II. BROWN OWL. 269 



the feet too are feathered down to the very 

 claws ; the circle round the face is ash-colored., 

 spotted with brown. 



Both these species inhabit woods, where they 

 reside the whole day; in the night they are very 

 clamorous ; and when they hoot, their throats 

 are inflated to the size of a hen's egg. In the 

 dusk they approach our dwellings ; and will fre- 

 quently enter pigeon houses, and make great 

 havoke in them. They destroy numbers of 

 little leverets, as appears by the legs frequently 

 found in their nests. They also kill abundance 

 of moles, and skin them with as much dexterity 

 as a cook does a rabbet. These breed in hollow, 

 trees or ruined edifices ; lay four eggs of an 

 elliptic form, and of a whitish color. 



[The opinion entertained by Doctor Latham 

 in the second supplement to his Sy?iopsis of 

 birds, that the brown and tawny owls ought to 

 be included in one species, is apparently well 

 founded; the sole distinction between them 

 consisting in a trifling variety of color. 



In the exquisite drawings by the late Joseph 

 Plymley, Esq. from which many of the plates 

 in the folio edition of the British Zoology 

 were taken, these two supposed species are 

 represented with dark irides, but those of the 



