LITTLE HORNED OWL. 305 



tion, shot in Yorkshire ; and that Mr. Fothergill, of York, has another 

 which was shot in the spring- of 1805, near Weatherby, in that county. 

 Mr. Foljambe further remarks, that he has heard of others which had 

 been seen in the same neighbourhood. 



This species is about the size of the Sparrow Owl (Strix passerina.) 

 Length seven inches and a half : the bill is black ; irides yellow. The 

 whole plumage is variegated with dusky rufous-brown, and grey ; on 

 the upper parts the brown predominates ; on the under parts the grey : 

 the quills are transversely barred with rufous-white ; the legs are 

 covered to the toes with rufous-grey feathers, spotted with brown ; the 

 toes and claws are also brown. The feathers termed the ears appear to 

 be very indistinct in a dead bird, being very short, and composed of 

 three feathers on each side of the head. 



From the size and general resemblance of the Little Horned and Pas- 

 serine Owls, it is not unlikely that they are frequently confounded, 

 especially as the longer feathers on the head of the former are not at 

 all times discoverable, and that both are subject to considerable variation 

 in plumage. Buffbn, who probably had frequent opportunities of exa- 

 mining these birds, especially the Little Horned Owl, which is plentiful 

 in France, says the irides of the Little Horned Owl are of a deeper yel- 

 low, and the bill entirely black, which in the other is brown, with the 

 tip yellow. The plumage is also dissimilar ; the number and regular 

 disposition of the white spots on the wings and body are wanting. 



As this appears to be a migrative species on the continent, com- 

 ing with' the swallow into France, and re-migrating about the same 

 time that bird takes its departure, it is rather surprising no naturalist 

 has till lately identified the species in England. They have been 

 known to assemble on the continent in parts where field-mice abound, 

 in order to prey upon them, and it has been suspected that a similar 

 occurrence mentioned by Dale, in his Appendix to the History of 

 Harwich, must have been this species. With this persuasion, Buffbn 

 relates the circumstance as belonging to the history of this spe- 

 cies, whereas there can be no doubt it was the Hawk Owl, (Strix 

 brachyotos,) a bird in some respects of similar habits. Dale, from 

 Childrey, says, " In the year 1580, at Hallowtide, an army of mice so 

 I overran the marshes near South Minster, that they eat up the grass to 

 the very roots. But at length a great number of strange-painted 

 Owls came and devoured all the mice. The like happened in Essex 

 in 1648." 



Dale ascribes this to the Horn Owl, but we conceive he is equally 

 mistaken in the species. It will be recollected by the ornithologist, 



