SHORT-EARED OWD. 
289 
see so beautifully disposed in the Long- eared and 
Tawny Owls. The head and disk are compara- 
tively small, the latter complete ; the egrets in the 
male are nearly an inch in length, composed of about 
six feathers, liver brown on the centre and outer 
edges, buff orange on the inner webs. The disk 
around the eyes is black, extending outwards to a 
greater or less degree in different specimens, and in 
some reaching almost to the margin of the ruff. 
The external half of the disk, however, is gene- 
rally yellowish brown, the shaft of the feathers 
black above the eyes, and where they cover the 
bill, nearly white tinted with gray ; the very edge 
of the disk is white, and coming in contact with 
plumes forming the ruff, which are white at the 
base, causes the appearance of a white circle. 
The feathers composing the ruff are white at the 
base, mottled towards their tips with yellowish 
orange and black, except opposite the conchal 
opening, where they are wholly of the latter 
colour. The upper parts are buff orange, having 
the feathers broadly marked in the centre with 
liver brown, sometimes having a purplish tinge ; 
on those immediately folding over the wings 
the marginal edgings of light are broader, often 
approaching to yellowish white, and here forms 
the conspicuous stripe which we have seen in most 
of the Owls ; on the shoulders the markings are 
