138 
LONG-EARED OWL. 
as well as birds of various species ; its stomach having been found by me 
crammed with feathers and other remains of the latter. 
There is a marked difference between the sexes. The males are not only 
smaller than the females, but darker ; and this has tempted me to consider 
the Strix Mexicanus of Mr. Swainson and the Prince of Musignano as 
merely a large female of our Long-eared Owl. 
Long-eared Owl, Strix otus , Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vi. p. 52. 
Strix Otus, Bonap. Syn., p. 37. 
Long-eared Owl, Strix otus , Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 130. 
Long-eared Owl, Strix otus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 573. 
Tufts elongated ; general colour of plumage buff, mottled and spotted with 
brown and greyish-white ; dirty whitish anteriorly, with the tips black ; 
posteriorly reddish-white ; ruff mottled with red and black ; upper part of 
head minutely mottled with whitish, brownish-black, and light red ; the tufts 
light reddish towards the base, brownish-black in the centre toward the end, 
the inner edge white, dotted with dark brown ; upper parts buff, variegated 
with brown and whitish-grey, minutely mottled or undulatingly barred ; first 
row of coverts tipped with white ; quills and scapulars pale grey, barred with 
dark brown ; the primaries buff towards the base externally. Tail with ten 
bars on the middle and eight on the outer feathers ; lower parts with more 
buff and fewer spots than the upper ; each feather with a long dark brown 
streak, and several irregular transverse bars ; legs and toes pure buff. 
Male, 14§, 38. Female, 16, 40. 
A male sent in spirits from Boston by Dr. Brewer : — The roof of the 
mouth is flat, with two longitudinal ridges, the sides ascending ; the posterior 
aperture of the nares oblong, 4 twelfths long, with an interior fissure. The 
tongue is 7i twelfths long, deeply emarginate and papillate at the base, 
flattish' above, with a faint median groove, the sides parallel, the tip narrowed 
and emarginate. The mouth is very wide, measuring 1 inch and 1J twelfths. 
The oesophagus is 5£ inches long, of nearly uniform diameter throughout, as 
in all other Owls, its breadth being 1 inch. The proven tricular glandules 
form a belt 9 twelfths in diameter. The stomach is large, round, 1 inch 9 
twelfths long, 1 inch 7 twelfths broad, its walls thin, its muscular coat com- 
posed of ratter coarse fasciculi, but without distinction into lateral muscles; 
the tendinous spaces circular, and about 8 twelfths in diameter; its epithelium 
soft and rugous. The duodenum is 3 twelfths in diameter, and curves at the 
distance of 3 inches from the pylorus. The intestine is 23 inches long, its 
smallest diameter only 1 twelfth. The coeca, Fig. 2, are in this individual 
unequal, as they very frequently are in Owls ; the largest being 2 inches 10 
