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MOTTLED OWL. 
the ludicrous appearance this bird must have made, had Nature 
bestowed on it the powers of song, and given it the faculty of 
warbling out sprightly airs, while robed in such a solemn 
exterior. But the great God of Nature hath, in His wisdom, 
assigned to this class of birds a more unsocial, and less noble, 
though, perhaps, not less useful, disposition, by assimilating 
them, not only in form of countenance, but in voice, manners, 
and appetite, to some particular beasts of prey; secluding 
them from the enjoyment of the gay sunshine of day, and 
giving them little more than the few solitary hours of morning 
and evening twilight, to procure their food and pursue their 
amours; while all the tuneful tribes, a few excepted, are 
wrapt in silence and repose. That their true character, 
however, jshould not be concealed from those weaker animals 
on whom they feed, (for Heaven abhors deceit and hypocrisy,) 
He has stamped their countenance with strong traits of their 
murderer, the cat ; and birds in this respect are, perhaps, 
better physiognomists than men. 
The Owl now before us is chiefly a native of the northern 
it, as the original one of Linnaeus. The Tawny Owls of this country | 
present similar changes, and were long held as distinct, until accurate 
observers proved their difference. C. L. Bonaparte appears to have been the 
first who made public mention of the confusion which existed; and Mr 
Audubon has illustrated the sexes and young in one of his best plates. The 
species appears peculiar to America. They are scarce in the southern 
districts ; but above the Falls of the Ohio they increase in number, and are 
plentiful in Virginia, Maryland, and all the eastern districts. Its range to 
the northward perhaps is not very extensive ; it does not appear to have 
been met with in the last overland expedition, no mention being made of it in 
the Northern Zoology. The flight of this Owl, like its congeners, is smooth : 
and noiseless. By Audubon, it is said sometimes to rise above the top 
branches of the highest forest trees, while in pursuit of large beetles, and 
at other times to sail low and swiftly over the fields or through the woods, 
in search of small birds, field mice, moles, or wood rats, from which it chiefly 
derives its subsistence. According to some gentlemen, the nest is placed at 
the bottom of the hollow trunk of a tree, often not at a greater height than six 
or seven feet from the ground, at other times so high, as from thirty to forty. 
It is composed of a few grasses and feathers. The eggs are four or five, of a 
nearly globular form, and pure white colour. — Ed. 
