36 
STRIX CUNICULARIA. 
and margined with blackish, which colour predominates 
towards the tip ; the extreme tip is dull whitish ; the 
shafts are brown above and white beneath ; the exterior 
primary is finely serrated, and equal in length to the 
fifth, the second and fourth being hardly shorter than 
the third, which is the longest. The tail is very short, 
slightly rounded, having its feathers of the same colour 
as the primaries, and, like them, five or six banded, but 
more purely white at tip. The feet are dusky, and 
remarkably granulated, extending, when stretched 
backwards, an inch and a half beyond the tail ; the tarsi 
are slender, much elongated, covered before and on each 
side with loose webbed feathers, which are more thickly 
set near the base, and become less crowded towards the 
toes, where they assume the form of short bristles ; 
those on the toes being altogether setaceous, and rather 
scattered. The lobes beneath the toes are large and 
much granulated ; the nails are black and rather small, 
the posterior one having no groove beneath. 
The individual we have described is a male, and no 
difference is observable in several other specimens : the 
female differs in nothing except that her eyes are of a 
pale yellow colour. 
