326 The Hifiory ^ANIMALS. 
every feather has on it a number of elegant, round, white fpots, and the whole back 
of the bird is by thefe variegated in an extreamly beautiful manner: the larger fea¬ 
thers of the wings and tail are of the fame grey with thofe of the back, only paler 5 
and they are variegated with almoft innumerable little white fpots, difpofed in feveral 
tranfverfe feries, and there is befide a long black line on each : the fhoulders and up¬ 
per part of the wings, in the male birds, have a beautiful caft of reddifh-brown in 
the grey, which gives the white a yet greater advantage : on the belly the feathers are 
paler than any where elfe, and toward it’s lower part they are, indeed, whitifhj but 
in thefe, as in all the others, the roots are black. 
The eyes of this fpecies are very large, and remarkably bright j their iris is of a 
flame colour: the beak is fhort, black, and crooked ; the legs are not very robuft, 
but they are feathered down to the toes, which makes them look thick; the plumage 
upon them is grey, with a tinge of reddifh-brown : the toes are fmall and flender, 
they are of a greyifh or lead colour ; the feathering does not reach over them, but 
they are fquammofe. 
This is frequent in Italy, but is not fo common in any other part of Europe : it 
lives in woods, and fometimes about old buildings, and comes abroad only in the 
night, then making a loud hooting noife. It feeds on field-mice and infeds j moft of 
the naturalifls have defcribed it. Aldrovand, Ray, Willughby, and others call it 
Scops; others, Scops Aldrovandi; the Italians call it Chiuvino. 
Strix capite aurito , albida , cauda longiore * }t GttlllcUt 
The Horn-owl , with a long tail . 
This is of the fize of a jack-daw, and of a beautiful filvery grey colour, ap¬ 
proaching to white : the head is round, large, and very full of feathers: the ears or 
horns are fhort, but very ered, and compofed each of about fix feathers : the beak is 
very broad at the bafe, but it is fhort, crooked, and of a pale bluifh colour: the 
eyes are very large and bright j their iris is of a fine colour, and the pupil black: the 
head is t>f a fomewhat greyer colour than the body, and both are variegated in a very 
elegant manner with minute fpots of a fnow-wbite : there are many of thefe fpots on 
every feather, but they are not diflinguifhable, unlefs on a clofe infpedion. 
The wing-feathers, and thofe of the tail, are of a very beautiful pearly grey ; thofe 
of the tail are remarkably long; they are twelve in number, and are all of the fame 
length, and obtufe at the ends: the legs are fhort, thick, and plumofe down to the toes 5 
the plumage upon them is fine and downy, and is of the fame pearly grey with the 
wing-feathers, but it has a little tinge of brown in it. 
The bottoms of the feet are of a lead colour, and the claws, which are lefs for¬ 
midable than in many other fpecies, are black. 
This fpecies is frequent in the South of France; I have had three feveral times 
fpecimens of it from thence, yet it has been unknown to the generality of the writers 
on this fubjed. Aldrovand is the only one who feems but to have named it; and he 
barely mentions it, at the end of his defeription of the Scops. He fays, it is a native 
of Germany, and is like the Scops, but of a whitifh colour, and that it has longer 
ears, and a much longer tail. 
It lives in forefls, in the ftumps of decayed trees, and comes abroad only in evenings. 
It feeds on field-mice and infeds. 
Strix dorfo variegato , capite Icevi. 3£1)t Cl)UtCl)'Otl)i 5 Ot* 
The variegated-backed , f?nooth-headed Strix. JB&ttl-Otbl* 
This is a very beautiful bird, and, if it were lefs common among us, would not fail 
to be admired extreamly j it is of the fize of a pigeon : the head is large, fhort, and 
rounded, and is furrounded by a circle of white feathers like a ruff, fupported be¬ 
hind by another circle of fhorter, but more rigid, feathers, of a dufky yellow; this 
takes it’s origin from behind the eyes, and runs down on each fide to the throat, and 
has much the appearance of a woman’s head-drefs furrounding the face : the back part 
of the head is of a pale brown, fprinkled over with little whifh fpots : the eyes are 
large, but they feem, on account of this circle of feathers, to be funk deep into the 
head : the noftrils are oblong ; the apertures of the ears are broad and patulous, but there 
o - are 
