LONG-EARED OWL 
185 
LONG-EARED OWL. 
{ylsio otus.) 
Horned Owl. — This fine-looking bird is by no 
means scarce in most wooded districts, and is 
especially fond of fir-woods. It is smaller than the 
Tawny or Barn Owl, but has a taller and more 
commanding appearance, owing to its longer tail, 
and the presence of the two remarkable tufts or 
plumes upon the head. These are not the bird's 
ears, of course, any more than they are its horns, 
and their use is not certainly known. But it is 
concsivable that they are actual aids to hearing, 
and may serve as a further assistance in concen- 
trating sound, which is the purpose of the hollow 
facial disc. Just as a man who is hard of hearing 
puts his hollow hand behind his ear as a sort of 
sounding board, this concave arrangement of 
feathers round the face enables the Owl to catch 
the slightest audible hint of a mouse as it moves 
in the grass. The great attention which Nature 
pays to the OwFs hearing apparatus is shown by 
the fact that in this species and the two next there 
is the most remarkable difference in the whole 
structure of the actual ear on the opposite sides 
of the head. It appears as if this difference is a 
specially elaborate provision to enable these Owls, 
