74 



LONG-EARED OWL. 



spotted with white, pale ferruginous and dusky; primaries barred 

 with brownish yellow and dusky, darkening towards the tips ; se- 

 condaries more finely barred and powdered with white and dusky; 

 tail rounded at the end, of the same length with the wings, beau- 

 tifully barred and marbled with dull white and pale rusty, on a 

 dark brown ground; throat and breast clouded with rusty, cream, 

 black and white; belly beautifully streaked with large arrow heads 

 of black; legs and thighs plain pale rusty, feathered to the claws, 

 which are blue black, large and sharp; inside of the wing brownish 

 yellow, with a large spot of black at the root of the primaries. 



This was a female. Of the male I cannot speak precisely; 

 tho from the numbers of these birds which I have examined in the 

 Fall, when it is difficult to ascertain their sex, I conjecture that 

 they differ very little in color. 



About six or seven miles below Philadelphia, and not far 

 from the Delaware, is a low swamp thickly covered with trees, and 

 inundated during great part of the year. This place is the resort 

 of great numbers of the Qua-bird, or Night Raven, (Ardea nycti- 

 corax) where they build in large companies. On the twenty-fifth 

 of April, while wading among the dark recesses of this place, ob- 

 serving the habits of these birds, I discovered a Long-eared Owl 

 which had taken possession of one of their nests, and was sitting; 

 on mounting to the nest I found it contained four eggs, and break- 

 ing one of these the young appeared almost ready to leave the 

 shell. There were numbers of the Qua-birds"" nests on the adjoin- 

 ing trees all around, and one of them actually on the same tree. 

 Thus we see how unvarying are the manners of this species, how- 

 ever remote and different the countries may be where it has taken 

 up its residence. 



