I 



PLATE CLXV. 



veratls, litura ad nares alba. Lath, Ind, Orn. 1. 

 57. 19. 



Siberian eared Owl. Lath. Gen» Syn. 130. 16. /, 5,/. h 



A rpecimen of this elegant bird has been in our pofTeflion for a 

 confiderable period, and as our Mufeum of natural hlftory in which 

 it is contained was allowed to remain open to general infpeAion for 

 the fpace of fome years, we conceive the bird muft have obtained 

 every requifite publicity to entitle us to the credit, if there be any 

 due, of having firll introduced it to the notice of our country as a 

 Britifh bird. 



Some of our Ornithologifts have placed this bird in their arrange- 

 ments as a new Britifh fpecies under the fpecific name of Scops, 

 believing it to be the fame kind with le petit due of Buffon, a bird 

 found in France, and the fouth of Europe, and diftinguiflied by 

 Cmelin under the name of Scops. We are ever unwilling to differ 

 from our cotemporary collectors, and would not on any very trivial 

 occafion be inclined to exprefs our diflent to what appears an efta- 

 blifhed notion, but in the prefent iniiance there really appears to us 

 the exiflence of an error material to be corre6led. The bird before 

 us is alTuredly not the Gmeliniao Scops : we have ever confidered it 

 as the Strix Pulchella defcribed by Dr. Pallas, and have little hefi- 

 tation in conceiving on a more attentive invefligation the opinion of 

 thofe who think the contrary will gradually yield to ours. 



; With 



