304 
LITTLE HORNED OWL. 
tail wholly white and even at the end. The bill is said to be reddish 
brown ; irides bluish ; leg’s red. 
The little knowledge we have had communicated to us of the habits 
of this bird, would not have led us to the discovery of the specimen in 
question, had we not previously ascertained the changes in plumage to 
which all our gulls are subject. Taking, for example, the several mu- 
tations, we should now have no difficulty of identifying the Little Gull 
through all its several changes from the time of its leaving the nest, by 
comparative reasoning. The second material change is, without doubt, 
a good exemplification of the alteration in plumage of the Little Gull. 
In this state of plumage we have sufficient marks left to inform us what 
were its infantine colours, and also what it is in a progressive state of 
acquiring. The markings of these two species are very similar, but 
where the feathers are brown in one they are black in the other. From 
the appearance of the black on the wings, the back under the scapulars, 
and the tertials, we cannot hesitate to pronounce that the Little Gull is 
in its first feathers of a very dark colour, probably dusky black, mixed 
with grey, similar in markings to that of almost all others of our well- 
known species, only that their feathers are brown and grey. The 
dusky appearance of the crown of the head, and particularly the black 
spot on the coverts of the ears, are true indications of a future black 
head, evinced by similar markings on the black-headed gull ; and the 
black bar at the end of the tail is an invariable character of immaturity 
in all the well-known species of the gull tribe. 
We have been more particular in noticing these characteristic marks 
of change, in order that this elegant little species may be identified in 
any state of plumage, since it is at present so little known. 
Its native country appears to be the southern parts of Siberia and 
Russia, and the shores of the Caspian Sea, migrating more northward in 
summer in order to breed, especially up to the Wolga.* 
LITTLE HORNED OWL (Scops Aldrovandi, Ray.) 
•Strix Scops, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 129.— Gme/. Syst. p. 290 — Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 
56 — Strix zorca et Giu, Ib. 1. p. 56. 16. 16 Scops Aldrovandi, Baii, Syn. p. 
25 Will, p, 65. t. 12.— Le Scops, ou Petit Due, Buf. Ois. 1. p. 353. t. 24.-- 
PI. Enl. 436. — Hibou Scops, Temrn. Man. d’Orn. l.p. 107. — Kleine ohieule, 
Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 2. p. 912. — Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 74. — Le petit 
Due, Briss. Orn. 1. p. 495. t. 37. f. 1 — Ib. 8vo. p. 44 — Little Horn-Owl, 
Will. Orn. p. 101. t. 12. — Scops Eared-Owl, Lath. Syn. 1. p. 129. — Ib. Supp. 
1. p. 43. — Mont. Orn. Diet Bewick’s Br. Birds. — Ib. Supp. 
It is with pleasure we have to announce this species of Owl, as 
having been occasionally shot in Great Britain within these few years, 
upon the undoubted authority of Mr. Foljambe, of Osberton, an accu- 
rate ornithologist, who assures us that he has a specimen in his collec- 
