161 
altered his opinion respecting the brown va- 
riety, being a distinct species. What seemsj, 
says the above gentleman, "to have puzzled 
our scientific friend in the former part of his 
works was the drawing of an Owl, sent to him 
by Mr. Pennant, which had yellow irides, 
and was called Tawny Owl. No such bird, 
however, exists in England, and we must 
therefore conceive the figure had been taken 
from a preserved specimen in some collection, 
and might have really been the Tawny Owl 
of this country, but unfortunately it is too fre-< 
quently the case that persons employed to stuff 
birds put in any eyes that may be handy, or 
perhaps that they think most attractive, with- 
out regard to science; such we have frequent- 
ly met with, and such no doubt deceived Mr. 
Pennant in the bird, the drawing of which 
he sent to Doctor Latham." 
Since the above was put to press, we have 
received a letter from the Rev. Henry North, 
in answer to a letter the Rev. Dr. Sutton ad- 
dressed to that gentleman, (knowing that he 
had in his possession living specimens of the 
White and Tawny Owls,) in order to ascer- 
tain the fact relative to the eyes of those 
x 
