130 
AFRICAN PASSERINE OWL. 
Scotophilus perlatus , Swain . 
Above, rufous brown ; head above, thickly covered with round 
white dots ; tail, brownish, with seven pair of white spots, 
margined with black. 
La Chevechette perlde, Le Vaill.> Ois. d'Afrique , vi. PI. 284. 
— Strix perlata, Yieil. Ency. Meth. 1290. 
This is certainly the most elegant of all the Passe- 
rine Owls, and it is no less interesting, as being the 
only one yet found in Africa representing those of 
the opposite continent of tropical America. 
In the structure of all these small owls there is 
no essential dilference, although inhabiting different 
continents. They differ materially from all those 
of the lesser European owls, as Tengmalmi, &c., 
with which they hare been hitherto arranged, in 
having little or no facial disk ; in the smallness ot 
their ears, which are not much larger than in ordi- 
nary birds ; in the shortness of their wings, and in 
the length of their nearly even tail. They are ex- 
cluded from the European province, and all the 
species we have seen, save this, are peculiar to 
tropical America. In all these, the wings hardly 
exceed the length of the tail ; the third, fourth, and 
