THE SCOPS EARED OWL. 
81 
Cape of Good Hope. It is by no means an uncommon bird in Southern Europe. A very good 
description is given of the habits of the Scops Eared Owl by Mr. Spence. 
“This Owl, which in summer is very common in Italy, is remarkable for the constancy 
and regularity with which it utters its peculiar note or cry. It does not merely ‘ to the moon 
complain,’ but keeps repeating its plaintive and ' monotonous cry of Kew ! Lem ! (whence its 
Florentine name of Chiu, pronounced almost exactly like the English letter Q) in the regular 
intervals of about two seconds the livelong night, and until one is used to it, nothing can well 
be more wearisome. Towards the end of April, last year, 1830, one of these Owls established 
itself in the large Jardin Anglais , behind the house where we resided at Florence, and until 
our departure for Switzerland in the beginning of June, I recollect but one or two instances in 
which it was not constantly to be heard, as if in spite to the nightingales, who abounded there 
LONG-EARED OWL (page 86 )— Asio americanus, and SCOPS EARED OWL — Scops carnioliaca. 
from nightfall to midnight (and probably much later), whenever I chanced to be in the back 
part of the house, or took a friend to listen to it, and always with precisely the same unwearied 
cry, and the intervals between each as regular as the tickings of a pendulum. 
“This species of Owl, according to Professor Savi’s excellent Ornitologia Toscana , 
Vol. I. p. 74, is the only Italian species which migrates ; passing the winter in Africa and 
Southern Asia, and the summer in the south of France. It feeds wholly upon beetles, grass- 
hoppers, and other insects.” 
The length of this tiny Owl is only seven inches and a half, the female being a little longer 
than her mate. The nest is generally placed in a hollow tree or the cleft of a rock, and con- 
tains from two to four white eggs. It is a pretty little bird, the general coloring being much 
as follows. The head is light brown, marked with several narrow dark-brown streaks ; the 
back is variegated brown and chestnut, marked with dark bands and gray mottlings. The wing 
is brown, speckled largely with white and gray, and the tail is similarly barred and dashed 
with black and pale brown. The facial disk is grayish-white, thickly covered with small 
brown spots, and the two feather-tufts of the head are similarly tinted. The under portions 
Vol. II. -11. 
