216 VIRGINIAN HORNED OWL. 



teristic a disposition of colours as to leave no doubt 

 of its being truly distinct. It is a native of many 

 parts of North America, and seems to have been 

 first figured and accurately described by Edwards, 

 from a living specimen then recently brought from 

 Virginia. " It approaches, says Edwards, near in 

 magnitude to the Greatest Horn or Eagle-Owl : 

 the bigness of the head in this seems not at all 

 inferior to that of a Cat: the wing, when closed, 

 measures from the top to the ends of the quills 

 full fifteen inches: the bill is black, the upper 

 mandible hooked, and overhanging the nether, 

 as in Eagles and Hawks, having no angle in them, 

 but plain on its edges: it is covered with a skin 

 in which are placed the nostrils, and that skin hid 

 with a bristly kind of grey feathers that grow round 

 the basis of the bill: the eyes are large, having 

 circles round them, pretty broad, of a bright, 

 shining gold-colour: the space round the eyes, 

 which one may call the face, is of a light brown, 

 confusedly mixed with orange-colour, gradually 

 becoming dusky where it borders on the eyes: 

 over the eyes it hath white strokes: the feathers 

 that compose the horns begin just above the bill, 

 where they are intermixed with a little white, but 

 as they extend onwards beyond the head, they 

 become of a red-brown, clouded with dusky, and 

 tipped with black: the top of the head, neck, 

 back, wings, and upper side of the tail are barred 

 across with dusky bars of reddish: the greater 

 wing-feathers and the tail are barred across with 

 dusky bars of half an inch breadth, some a little 



