254 



WOOD OWL. 



intermixed with the brown ground-colour of their 

 plumage. The separation of the English Wood 

 Owl into two supposed species has been the cause 

 of much confusion in ornithological works; and as 

 the bird seems to be the only British species which 

 is more particularly found in woody than in other 

 situations, the title of Wood Owl seems best adapt- 

 ed to its nature. In size this species equals, and 

 perhaps sometimes surpasses the common White 

 or Barn-Owl, and its colour is an elegant variega- 

 tion of black streaks, spots, and freckles, disposed 

 on a brown ground-colour, which, as before men- 

 tioned, inclines in some individuals to a tawny or 

 ferruginous, and in others to a grey cast : on the 

 wing-coverts are several spots or patches of white, 

 so disposed as generally to form three rows of 

 spots down the coverts: the ruff or circle of rising 

 plumes surrounding the face are also largely in- 

 termixed with white, and the lower part of the 

 belly, with the thighs, are of this colour : the tail 

 is varied with black bars and markings on the 

 brown or tawny ground-colour: the irides are of 

 a deep glaucous blue colour: the larger wing- 

 feathers are barred or crossed by several dusky- 

 brown bands : the legs are covered to the claws 

 with whitish downy feathers, and the bill is brown. 

 This bird, as before observed, chiefly frequents 

 woods, and deposits its eggs, generally four in 

 number, of an elliptic form, and of a whitish colour, 

 in the hollows of trees. Mr. Pennant informs us 

 that the young birds will feed on any dead thing, 

 whereas those of the white or Barn Owl must have 



