LEAST EUROPEAN SPARROW OWL. 125 
La Chevechette, Le Vatnpant; Ois: d’ Afrique, 
pl. 46. 
Petite Chouette d’ Uplande, 
and Chouette d’ Acadie, OF THE FRENCH. 
Gemeiner Sperlingskauz, Or THE GERMANS. 
Specific Characters.—Upper part of body greyish brown, punc- 
tured with white spots. Inferior parts whitish, with longitudinal 
brown markings. Tail feathers marked with four or five large 
white spots on the inner barb, smaller on the outer, forming in 
the male four white bands, and in the female three. The smallest 
of European Owls. Length, male six inches, female about seven 
inches. 
Ir is not without considerable hesitation that I have 
applied Daudin’s name to designate this bird, which is 
the true S. passerina of Linneus. By the rule of 
priority, the name given to it by the distinguished 
naturalist by whom it was first described, ought to be 
retained. But this rule, like all others, is open to 
an exception, and my excuse for breaking it in the 
present case, is, I think, a sound one. All the English 
ornithological writers, with the exception of Mr. 
Gould, who adopted Nilson’s name S. nudipes, have 
applied Linneus’s designation to a closely allied but 
totally different species, the S. psilodactyla of Linneus, 
the Athene noctua of modern authors, a bird in the 
British lists, so well described and figured as the 
Little Owl by Yarrell. Much confusion must necessarily 
result among English students, by having two birds at 
sight similar to each other designated by the same 
name. 
Temminck adopted Latham’s name, S. acadica, to 
designate this bird; but it is quite certain that the S. 
acadica of Latham is the North American species, a 
