VIRGINIAN EARED OWL. 
Le GRAND Due de V irGinie. Brin. Orn. i. p. 4 S 4 . 
Horned Owl. Ellis's Hads. Bay, p. 4 0. 
Great Horned Owl from Virginia. Edw. p. 60. 
Virginian Eared Owl. Lath. Syn. i. p. 119. 
There is little distinction between this genus and the rapacious birds, 
except that those commit their ravages by day, but this subject chiefly by 
night. The bill is short and hooked, not furnished with a cere, and both 
mandibles are moveable, as in the Parrot. 
The nostrils are covered with bristly feathers, projecting forwards. The 
head and eyes are large, and during the day they are mostly shut, being 
unable to bear the glare of light. 
The passage to the ears is large, and their sense of hearing more exqui- 
site than that oF other birds, perhaps than any known animal. Their legs 
and feet are for the most part clothed with feathers, down to the origin of 
the claws, which are much hooked, strong, and very sharp. The outer- 
most toe is capable of being turned backwardsas occasion may require, and 
one or more of the outermost quill feathers is serrated. 
The appetite for flesh, and the disposition. to plunder,. are the same. This 
genus is subdivided into two genera, the long eared, or Horned Owl, and 
those with smooth heads. This is inferior in size to the Eagle Owl, not 
measuring more than sixteen inches. 
It rs common to South and North America, in Northern Asia, as ai 
east as Kamtschatka, and almost to the North Pole ; often met with at Hud- 
son’s Bay, where it frequents the woods, and builds in March in tne pine 
tree, the nest being composed of a few sticks laid across ; the eggs aie two 
in number, of a dull white ; the young fly in June. 
It makes during night a most hideous noise, not unlike the outcry of a 
man, so that passengers beguiled by it, often lose their way in the vast 
forests it frequents. 
