LONG-EARED OWL 
283 
generally composed of six principal feathers, gra- 
duated in length, ochraceous towards the exterior 
edge, grayish white on the inner, the centre deep 
black, slightly broken into at the edges by each 
colour. All the upper parts have a ground of 
grayish white along the shafts of the feathers, 
streaked with black, and barred and spotted with 
undulating markings of ochraceous and black; 
the secondaries become more distinctly barred, and 
the quills, towards their base, are crossed with 
uninterrupted bars of dull black and ochraceous 
or tawny ; towards the tips, they become beauti- 
fully clouded with gray and blackish brown. The 
tail is very nearly square, the centre feathers are 
barred irregularly, those towards the outside deci- 
dedly crossed by black and tawny. The under parts 
are of a rich yellowish white, tinted on the edges 
of the feathers with ochraceous, the centre of each 
black, breaking off in delicate and interrupted bars 
of the same tint, particularly on the flanks and 
lower parts of the belly. The tarsi and toes, to 
within one or two scalings of the extremity, are 
thickly clothed with yellowish white downy 
feathers. Claws are long, not much hooked, or of 
great strength ; the colour wood brown, pinkish at 
the base during life. The irides are rich and 
brilliant Dutch or orpiment orange. Length is from 
thirteen to fourteen inches, and the form is not so 
robust or muscular as in the Tawny Owl. There 
is considerable variation in the shades of different 
