WHITE Oil BARN OWL. 
259 
being seen around and at the inner corners of the 
eyes. The ruff, which is often marked on the upper 
part with yellowish or dark tips, is quite uniform 
in colour and unmarked. Upper parts pale ochra- 
ceous yellow, delicately crossed on the crown, 
back, shoulders, tips of the quills and secondaries, 
with irregular wavy bars, each feather except the 
quills having a small white spot surrounded with 
black at the tips ; the quills are paler towards their 
base, and are crossed with clouded bars of a deeper 
ochraceous tint, mottled with gray ; inner surface 
of the wings pure white and spotless. Tail is very 
pale ochraceous, delicately mottled with blackish 
gray. Tarsi are clothed with thick plumes at 
the knees, which gradually become thinner and 
shorter towards the feet, on which the feathering 
appears as scattered bristly hairs. This bird we 
consider as a very pale coloured specimen ; in the 
common state of the plumage, the shades of the 
colour are deeper, the markings bolder and more 
decided, more reddish brown around the eyes, and 
a tint of ochraceous around the ruff, and the bars 
on the wings appear dull black on the lower side. 
Length to extremity of the tail about thirteen 
and a-half inches, the wings exceeding it about 
half an inch. 
In the female, the colours are ’rather duller, the 
ochraceous colour often extending upon the lower 
parts, particularly across the breast ; and the belly 
