308 MOTTLED OWL. 



the ludicrous appearance this bird must have made had Nature 

 bestowed on it the powers of song, and given it the faculty of 

 warbling out sprightly airs, while robed, in such a solemn 

 exterior. But the great God of nature hath, in His wisdom, 

 assigned to this class of birds a more unsocial and less noble, 

 though, perhaps, not less useful, disposition, by assimilating 

 them, not only in form of countenance, but in voice, manners, 

 and appetite to some particular beasts of prey, secluding 

 them from the enjoyment of the gay sunshine of day, and 

 giving them little more than the few solitary hours of morning 

 and evening twilight to procure their food and pursue their 

 amours, while all the tuneful tribes, a few excepted, are wrapt 

 in silence and repose. That their true character, however, 

 should not be concealed from those weaker animals on whom 

 they feed (for Heaven abhors deceit and hypocrisy), He has 

 stamped their countenance with strong traits of their murderer, 

 the cat ; and birds in this respect are, perhaps, better physiog- 

 nomists than men. 



be adopted for it, as the- original one of Linnseus. The tawny owls of 

 this country present similar changes, and were long held as distinct, 

 until accurate observers proved their difference. C. L. Bonaparte appears 

 to have been the first who made public mention of the confusion which 

 existed ; and Mr Audubon has illustrated the sexes and young in one of his 

 best plates. The species appears peculiar to America. They are scarce 

 in the southern districts ; but above the Falls of the Ohio they increase 

 in number, and are plentiful in Virginia, Maryland, and all the eastern 

 districts. Its range to the northward perhaps is* not very extensive ; it 

 does not appear to have been met with in the last Overland Expedition, 

 no mention being made of it in the " Northern Zoology." The flight of 

 this owl, like its congeners, is smooth and noiseless. By Audubon, it is 

 said sometimes to rise above the top branches of the highest forest trees, 

 while in pursuit of large beetles, and at other times to sail low and swiftly 

 over the fields or through the woods, in search of small birds, field mice, 

 moles, or wood rats, from which it chiefly derives its subsistence. Ac- 

 cording to some gentlemen, the nest is placed at the bottom of the hollow 

 trunk of a tree, often not at a greater height than six or seven feet from 

 the ground, at other times so high as from thirty to forty. It is com- 

 posed of a few grasses and feathers. The eggs are four or five, of a nearly 

 globular form, and pure white colour. — Ed. 



