82 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



remarkably concave below, barred with six broad bars of brown and as many narrow ones of 

 white. The back and shoulders have a cast of chestnut. At each internal angle of the eye 

 is a broad black spot. The plumage of the radiated circle round the eye ends in long black 

 hairs, and the bill is encompassed by others of a longer and more bristly kind; these probably 

 serve to guard the eye when any danger approaches it, in sweeping hastily through the woods ; 

 and those usually found on Fly-catchers may have the same intention to fulfil ; for on the 

 slightest touch of the point of any of these hairs, the nictitant membrane was instantly thrown 

 over the eye. 



" The female is twenty-two inches long and four feet in extent ; the chief difference of colour 

 consists in her wings being broadly spotted with white, the shoulder being a plain chocolate- 

 brown. The tail extends considerably beyond the tips of the wings. The bill is much longer, 

 and of a more golden yellow. Iris of the eye the same as that of the male." 



In addition to Wilson's very excellent description, I may remark, that the toes 

 are only half covered with feathers, there being- seven transverse scales visible 

 next the claws. The fifth quill feather is the longest*, the fourth equals the 

 sixth, the third equals the seventh, the second equals the eighth, and the first is 

 shorter than the ninth, but longer than the tenth. The tail is tipped with white. 



[22.] 5. Strix (Bubo) Virginiana. (Gmelin.) Virginian Horned Owl. 



Genus. Strix. Linn. Sub-genus. Bubo. Cuvier. 



The Great Horned Owl. (Otus Arnericanus.) Edwards, pi. CO. 



Horned Owl. Ellis. Huds. Bay, p. 40, t. 2. 



Due de Virginie. Buff. Planch. Enl., 207, f- L 



Virginian Eagle-Owl. Lath. Syn., i., p. 119, sp. 2. Idem. Suppl. p. 40. 



Eagle-Owl. Penn. Arct. Zool, ii., p. 228, No. 114. (The author deeming it to be 



a variety of the Eagle-Owl of Brit. Zool.) 

 Strix Virginiana. Lath. Ind., i., p. 52, sp. 2. Vieillot. Ois. de V Am., i., pi. 19. 

 Great Horned Owl. {Strix Virginiana.) Wilson, vi., p. 52, pi. 50, f. 1. 

 Strix Virginiana. Vieillot. Enc. Meth., 1282. Bonap. Syn., p. 37, No. 27. 

 Netowky-omeesew. Cree Indians. (Mr. Hutchins.) 

 Otowuck-oho. Crees of the Plains of the Saskatchewan. 



This large night-bird is peculiar to America, and most probably inhabits that 

 continent from one end to the other; Cuvier being of opinion that the Strix 

 Magellanica of the Planches Enlumine'es (585) differs from it merely in having 



* In a specimen in the British Museum. Forster, in his original description, says, " Remex sextus reliquis longior, 

 apice magis nigricans ; primus vero reliquis primoribus brevior. Remiges reliqui pallidiores obscurius fasciati." 



