THE TUFTED OWLS. 
8l 
resting on the debris of the .mimals caught by the old birds 
and the heaps of castings thrown up by the latter, no other 
attempts at a nest having been made. 
Eggs.— Two or three in number. Like those of other Owls, 
they are white, but are somewhat rough in texture. They are 
easily distinguished by their large size, measuring as follows • 
axis, 2-I5-2-S5 inches; diam., i-Ss-i-ps. 
THE TUFTED OWLS. GENUS SCOPS. 
Scops, Savigny, Descr. de I’Egypte, p. 291 (1809). 
Type, Scops scops (L.). 
^ These little Tufted Owls are really diminutive representa- 
tives of the great Eagle-Owls, from which they are easily dis- 
tinguished by their small size, though they have the same 
elongated “ear-tufts,” or bunches of erectile plumes, on the 
side of the crown, as their larger relatives. They have re- 
latively longer wings than the Eagle-Owls, but are much 
more strictly nocturnal in their habits than the latter birds. 
I hough Mr. Seebohm separates them under the genus he 
says that he only did so for the sake of convenience. This may 
be the case, if external appearances only are to be taken into 
consideration, but there can be no doubt that a careful com- 
parison of anatomical and osteological characters would un- 
doubtedly show that the two genera are distinct. For our 
purpose, Ae size of the two birds is sufficient, and there need 
be no difficulty in recognising the largest Scops from the 
smallest Bubo. 
I. SCOPS SCOPS. THE SMALL TUFTED OWL. 
Strix scops, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 132 (1766). 
Scops aldrovandi, Macgill. Br. B. iii. p. 422 (1840) 
Scops ed Yarn Br. B. i. p. 173 (X872); Sharpe, 
Cat. B. Brit Mus. 11. p. 47 (1875) i Dresser, B. Eur. 
(1876); B. O. U. List Br. B. p. 89 
(1883); Lilford, Col. Fig. Br. B. part iii. (1886); Saun- 
ders, Man. p. 297 (1889). 
Scops scops, Seeb. Brit. B. i. p. 193 (1883). 
Adult Male — Above grey, mottled all over with vermiculations 
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