370 THE MOTTLED OWL. 
Copey is, probably, the aboriginal or Carib name of the 
plant, which, like many others, has been retained. Scotch 
lawyer, or Scotch attorney, by which name it is known in 
Jamaica, is not altogether flattering to legal gentlemen of 
Caledonian extraction. i 

THE MOTTLED OWL. 
BY DR. W. WOOD. 
OF the genus Scops, there are some twenty-five or thirty 
species in all parts of the globe, only one of which, accord- 
ing to Cassin, is found in New England. From the time of 
Pennant till they were separated by the Prince of Canino 
(Charles Lucien Bonaparte), the mottled (Strix Asio) and 
the red owl (Strix Novia) were considered two distinct spe 
cies: since that time, the writers on ornithology —so far a5! 
have been able to learn— consider them the same bird. Some, 
and probably the most, believe that the mottled is the adult 3 
and the red the young, while others are equally bev?” 
that the reverse is true. Brewer, in his synopsis A m : 
birds of North America, says that the red-plumaged bird . : 
the adult. In his opinion he is sustained by Doctor pr : 
of Boston, and many other distinguished naturalists. A r | 
bon says, “The red owl of Wilson and other naturalist "i 
merely the young of the bird called by the same authors i : 
mottled owl.” Cassin, in the Pacific Railroad ir | 
ix, p. 52), agrees with Audubon, yet says “the ae peet 
of plumage described above (adult and young) WY 
regarded as characterizing distinct species, and they geal | 
sent a problem scarcely to be considered as fully yout, 
‘And furthermore he says, “this bird pairs and reais « 
while in the red plumage, and it is not 
. mottled male and red female associated or the ay È 
While Audubon says, “By the middle of Augus m 





