SI 6 



OWL. 



eyes, next the nose, white, behind them black ; on the back of the 

 ears, in the middle, a brown spot ; irides yellow ; ground coloar of 

 the head and neck light yellow buff, longitudinally streaked with 

 black, most beautifully behind, but on the back the black brown 

 is most predominant, and the yellow blotched and streaked ; wing 

 coverts much the same, but in the middle the spots approach to 

 white; second quills barred buff-yellow and brown black, in the 

 middle of the buff a spot of brown black ; outer quills much the 

 same, but the first eight without the spots in the buff; under the 

 wings whitish ; five of the inner bastard feathers tipped for nearly 

 an inch with brown, forming a bar ; one inch below this on the out- 

 most feather, a transverse bar on the inner web; the others have 

 three or four bars of the same, and the ends also brown ; tail feathers, 

 as the outer quills, barred brown and buff; the two middle ones 

 with a spot of brown in the buff, and the one on each side the same, 

 but the spots more faint and smaller, the others plain ; breast and 

 belly yellow .buff, marked with long streaks of brown; thighs and 

 vent paler and plain ; legs feathered to the toes. 



The female chiefly differs in the colours being less bright. — 

 Much has been said concerning the ear tufts of this species, and 

 many have supposed them to consist only of a single feather each. 

 Mr. White, many years since, gave us some cause to hesitate on this 

 head, as he observed to the contrary, both in this and the Scops, 

 during his residence in Gibraltar, and Col. Montagu has fully con- 

 firmed the circumstance, shewing that these tufts are composed of 

 a series of feathers scarcely longer than the others, but which may be 

 erected at the will of the bird ; indeed, as this gentleman observes, 

 one of the feathers is visibly longer than the rest, but is by no means 

 erected singly, nor is it easy to find even this longer feather, after the 

 death of the bird. 



This is a winter inhabitant in England, coming in October and 

 retiring in March, and the time of its stay being about the same as 

 that of the Woodcock, has occasioned its being called the Woodcock 



