BUBO. 291 
covered with close and fine yellowish white downy 
feathers. 
In different specimens, the huff orange is often 
much deeper in intensity, and of a clearer shade ; 
in the female it prevails more on the lower parts, 
the marking on the back and wings is more solid 
or massed together, and the egrets are shorter, 
often so much so as to be scarcely visible. In a 
Chinese specimen before us, apparently a female, 
we have the marking remarkably bold and dis- 
tinct, the fighter tints very vivid. 
The irides bright gamboge yellow. Length 
generally from fourteen to fifteen inches. 
Cuvier has employed the title Bubo to dis- 
tinguish those Owls which have the tarsi feathered 
and the head adorned with egrets, as in the genus 
Otus, but having the facial disk more imperfect and 
the conchal opening small. He assumes for the 
type the European Eagle Owl ; the Large Vir- 
ginian Ilomed-Owl is also closely allied, and we 
believe the form extends to Africa and India. 
The birds are all of large size ; the habits partly 
sylvan and nocturnal, but they breed in bleak and 
woodless regions. When disturbed during the 
day, they do not shew that great sensibility to 
light which the White Owl and its congeners 
display. 
