The Hiflory ^ANIMALS, 3 25 
or are within it’s verge, and indeed furnifh feathers to it: the eyes ftand nearer to the 
ears in this bird, than in any other known animal: between the noftrils and the eyes 
there are a number of rigid fetse, forming a kind of beard or whjfkers. 
The back and fides of this fpecies are of a mixed, ferrugineous, and black colour 5 
every feather appearing black in the middle, and ferrugineous at the edges; but if any 
one feather be feparated, and attentively examined, it will be found elegantly varie¬ 
gated with tranfverfe lines of grey and brown : the belly is of the fame general colour 
with the back, but there is a mixture of white that gives it a paler hue; the bottom 
parts of all the feathers are black, and all the feathers are longer, larger, and more 
downy than in almoft any other bird. All the owls have this Angularity in their plu¬ 
mage, and it is owing to this, that they appear much larger-bodied birds than they 
really are; but this has it more than any other fpecies of the whole genus. 
The legs are moderately long and very robuft, and they are covered down to the 
very toes with a thick plumage of a downy ftructure; this is of a whitifh colour, 
variegated with dufky, undulated lines, and interrupted by two or three naked 
annules. 
The great feathers of the wings are twenty-four in each, and both thefe and the 
tail-feathers have each fix or feven areola; of a dufky white, variegated with browns 
and a dufky, ferrugineous tinge; and the covering feathers of the wings, and thofe of 
the upper part of the back, which are longer than the others, are variegated with 
fpots of white : the tail confifls of twelve feathers; the middle ones are longeft, and 
the others gradually decreafe to the verge, but all of them are fharp-pointed, which is 
very different from their form in the common fcreech-owl. 
The under part of the foot is hard, callous, and of a pale whitifh-brown, with a 
tinge of yellow ; the claws are long, fharp, and blackifh : the intefiines are very long* 
and make a great number of circumvolutions : the liver is divided into two lobes; the 
gall-bladder is large : the tefticies are large and black, and the ftomach is remarkably 
robuft and thick. 
This is one of the moft frequent of all the owl-kind ; it is common to all parts of 
Europe, and to moft other places: all the Ornithologifts have defcribed it. Willugh- 
by, Ray, Aldrovand, and the generality of other writers call it, limply, Strix ; we, 
the common Owl, the brown Owl, and the Joy-owl. It is this fpecies which utters 
that chearful and agreeable hooting, which we hear on evenings: this feems to be a 
note of exultation and joy in the creature, and is erroneoufly, though very poetically, 
defcribed by the author of a late anonymous poem one of the beft in the Englifh 
language : 
Save that , from yonder ivy-mantled tow’r 
The moping Owl does to the moon complain , 
Of thofe who , wand'ring near her fecret bow’r , 
Molef her antient, folk ary reign. 
It is pity fo elegant a defcription fhould not be juft ; but it is certain, that the bird 
has no tide to the epithet moping, while fhe thus lengthens out her even fong ; nor is 
it complaint, or the effect of moleftation. 
Strix capite pinna fingulari aurita. 
The Strix , with the head aurited by a Jingle feather. 
This is an extreamly elegant little fpecies; it is of the bignefs of a fieldfare, but 
has all the characters of the owl-kind in the ftrongeft manner about it: the head is 
large, fhort, rounded, and very thickly covered,with feathers; they are fhorr, but 
very downy, and are of a dufky blackifh-grey, or what we properly exprefs by the term 
lead colour : the ears or horns, as they &re called, are fhort, but very erect; they con- 
fift each only of a fingle feather, but that is very well plumed, and makes an extreamly 
pretty appearance : the back and fides, and the covering feathers of the wings, are of a 
colour approaching to that of the head, but not exactly the fame; they are paler, 
and are of a fimple grey, without that admixture of the blue tinge, which gives the 
other what we call the lead colour. This, however, is not the foie fimple colour. 
* An elegy written in a country church-yard, 
4 ° 
every 
