LONG-EARED OWL. 
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and pure white.* The young are grayish white until nearly 
full grown, and roost during the day close together on a limb, 
among the thickest of the foliage. This Owl is frequently 
seen abroad during the day, but is not remarkable for its voice 
or habits. 
The Long-eared Owl is fourteen inches and a half long, 
and three feet two inches in extent ; ears, large, composed of 
six feathers, gradually lengthening from the front one back- 
wards, black, edged with rusty yellow ; irides, vivid yellow ; 
inside of the circle of the face, white, outside or cheeks, rusty ; 
at the internal angle of the eye, a streak of black; bill, 
blackish horn colour ; forehead and crown, deep brown, 
speckled with minute points of white and pale rusty ; outside 
circle of the face, black, finely marked with small curving 
spots of white ; back and wings, dark brown, sprinkled and 
spotted with white, pale ferruginous, and dusky ; primaries, 
barred with brownish yellow and dusky, darkening towards 
the tips ; secondaries, more finely barred and powdered with 
white and dusky ; tail, rounded at the end, of the same length 
with the wings, beautifully barred and marbled with dull 
white and pale rusty, on a dark brown ground ; throat and 
breast, clouded with rusty, cream, black and white ; belly, 
beautifully streaked with large arrow-heads of black ; legs and 
thighs, plain pale rusty, feathered to the claws, which are 
blue black, large, and sharp ; inside of the wing, brownish 
yellow, with a large spot of black at the root of the primaries. 
This was a female. Of the male I cannot speak precisely ; 
though, from the number of these birds which I have examined 
in the fall, when it is difficult to ascertain their sex, I con- 
jecture that they differ very little in colour. 
About six or seven miles below Philadelphia, and not far 
from the Delaware, is a low swamp, thickly covered with 
trees, and inundated during great part of the year. This 
place is the resort of great numbers of the Qua-bird, or 
Night Raven, (Ardea nycticorax ,) where they build in large 
* Buffon remarks that it rarely constructs a nest of its own ; but not unfre- 
quently occupies that of others, particularly the Magpie. 
