122 BARRED OWL. 
food. The difference of size between the male and female of 
this Owl is extraordinary, amounting, sometimes, to nearly 
eight inches in the length. Both scream during the day like a 
Hawk. 
The male Barred Owl measures sixteen inches and a half in 
length, and thirty-eight inches in extent; upper parts a pale 
brown, marked with transverse spots of white; wings barred 
with alternate bands of pale brown and darker; head smooth, 
very large, mottled with transverse touches of dark brown, pale 
brown and white; eyes large, deep blue, the pupil not per- 
ceivable; face, or radiated circle of the eyes, gray, surrounded 
by an outline of brown and white dots; bill yellow, tinged with 
green; breast barred transversely with rows of brown and white; 
belly streaked longitudinally with long stripes of brown, on a 
yellowish ground; vent plain yellowish white; thighs and feath- 
ered legs the same, slightly pointed with brown; toes nearly 
covered with plumage; claws dark horn colour, very sharp; tail 
rounded, and remarkably concave below, barred with six broad 
bars of brown, and as many narrow ones of white; the back and 
shoulders have a cast of chesnut; at each internal angle of the 
eye is a broad spot of black; the plumage of the radiated circle 
round the eye ends in long black hairs; and the bill is encom- 
passed by others of a longer and more bristly kind. These, 
probably, serve to guard the eye when any danger approaches ' 
it, in sweeping hastily through the woods; and those usually 
found on Flycatchers, may have the same intention to fulfil; 
for on the slightest touch of the point of any of these hairs, the 
nictitating membrane was instantly thrown over the eye. 
The female is twenty-two inches long, and four feet in ex- 
tent; the chief difference of colour consists in her wings being 
broadly spotted with white; the shoulder being a plain chocolate 
brown; the tail extends considerably beyond the tips of the 
wings; the bill is much larger, and of a more golden yellow; 
iris of the eye the same as that of the male. 
The different character of the feathers of this, and I believe 
of most Owls, is really surprising. Those that surround the 
