13S 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
tie Owl to which it is nearly related. This latter kind has a 
reiterated cry, when flying, like JPoopoo poopoo. Another 
note, which it utters sitting, appears so much like the 
human voice, calling out aime , heme , edme , that, accord- 
ing to Buffon, it deceived one of his servants who lodged 
in one of the old turrets of the castle of Montbard; and 
waking him up at 3 o’clock in the morning, with this sin- 
gular cry, he opened the window and called out, “ Who’s 
there helow ? my name is not Edme, hut Peter ! ” 
The length of the Acadian owl is about inches, and 18 in alar ex- 
tent. Above, dark greyish-brown, scattered with spots and points of 
white. Below, white with large spots of light brown or chesnut} [upon 
the flanks, in the European adult, transverse spots of the same color.] 
On the throat and sides of the neck large white spaces. 3 or 4 narrow 
bands of white on the tail, formed of spots of that color ; the prima- 
ries also crossed obliquely with 5 bars of white. The feet thickly 
featherd to the toes. The bill dark lead color, approaching black and 
y ellowish at the point, (in Strix Tengmalmi it is yellow.) Iris pale yel- 
low. 
Note. Prince Bonaparte, in a letter to W. Cooper, Esq. says, he 
has recently ascertained that this species differs from all the other Eu- 
ropean small kinds of the genus. 
Subgenus. — Strix. 
Shell of the ear very large, and with the operculum or lid still 
larger than in the preceding subgenus : disk of feathers round the 
face much dilated ; the bill lengthened out and curved only at the 
tip ; the legs thickly feathered, and the toes covered with scattered 
bristles ; the head without any ear-like tufts of feathers. — Habits 
nocturnal. 
