68 LITTLE OWL. 



rest of its genus, are white. The melancholy and gloomy 

 umbrage of those solitary evergreens forms its favourite 

 haunts, where it sits dozing and slumbering all day lulled by 

 the roar of the neighbouring ocean. 



The little owl is seven inches and a half long, and eighteen 

 inches in extent ; the upper parts are a plain brown olive, 

 the scapulars and some of the greater and lesser coverts 

 being spotted with white ; the first five primaries are crossed 

 obliquely with five bars of white ; tail, rounded, rather darker 

 than the body, crossed with two rows of white spots, and 

 tipt with white ; whole interior vanes of the wings, spotted 

 with the same ; auriculars, yellowish brown ; crown, upper 

 part of the neck, and circle surrounding the ears, beautifully 

 marked with numerous points of white on an olive brown 

 ground ; front, pure white, ending in long blackish hairs ; at 

 the internal angle of the eyes, a broad spot of black radiating 

 outwards ; irides, pale yellow ; bill, a blackish horn colour ; 

 lower parts, streaked with yellow ochre and reddish bay ; 

 thighs, and feathered legs, pale buff ; toes, covered to the 

 claws, which are black, large, and sharp-pointed. 



The bird, from which the foregoing figure and description 

 were taken, was shot on the sea-shore, near Great Egg Harbour, 

 in New Jersey, in the month of November, and, on dissection, 

 was found to be a female. Turton describes a species called 

 the white fronted owl (S. albifrons,) which, in everything 

 except the size, agrees with this bird, and has, very probably, 

 been taken from a young male, which is sometimes found 

 considerably less than the female. 



