THE WOOD-OWLS. 
lOI 
distinct black longitudinal centres to the feathers, which are 
also laterally barred and freckled, but not always completely 
banded ; quills dark brown below, with about six lighter bars, 
those near the base yellowish-white ; bill whitish horn-colour ; 
claws horny- white at base, darker at tip ; iris blue-black. 
Eufous Phase— Exactly like the grey phase in plumage, but 
rufous where the other is grey or brown. 
Nestling. — Covered with greyish-white down, the first feathers 
yellowish, with dark-brown cross-markings ; bill ivory-white at 
the end of both mandibles. 
Range in Great Britain. — The Tawny Owl is found in most of 
the wooded districts of Great Britain, though it is said to be 
decreasing in numbers, owing to the persecution it is sub- 
jected to on account of its supposed destructiveness to game. 
It is, perhaps, more plentiful in the northern districts of Eng- 
land than in the south, and is distributed over the greater part 
of Scotland, as well as the Isle of Skye and some of the inner 
Hebrides. It has not been found in Ireland. 
Raiig6 outside tlie Britisli Islands. Histributed throughout the 
greater part of Europe and Northern Africa, and extends to 
Palestine and Syria. It is plentiful in Norway up to Trondh- 
jem Fiord, but is rarer to the north. In Sw'eden it is not 
found so far north, and does not extend to Archangel. In 
Eastern Russia the limit of its range is said to be lat. 58°, 
and it has been met with in the Caucasus, but not, so far as 
known, in Siberia. In the Himalayas it is represented by a 
distinct form, Syrnium nivicolunt, and this is probably the 
species which occurs in Turkestan. Mr. Seebohm considers 
this eastern form of the Tawny Owl to belong to the same 
species as our European bird, but in this conclusion he is 
certainly mistaken. 
Hatits.— The Tawny Owl is, as a rule, nocturnal in its 
habits, and seldom flies in the daylight. If, by any accident, 
it has been driven from the dark recesses in which it loves to 
pass the day, it may be seen perched on a large bough or 
against the trunk of a tree, absolutely immoveable, and appa- 
rently incapable of any action in the sunlight. Usually, how- 
ever, it seeks repose in the day-time in some dark hollow of an 
