The Hijlory of ANIMAL 327 
are no ere£t feathers arifing from them; they are covered, however, by a kind of 
valve, which has it’s origin from the upper and interior part, near the eyes. 
The bread: and belly of this bird are covered with elegantly variegated feathers; they 
are white, and the fpots which form the variegations are brown, and of a quadrangu- 
lar figure : but ’tis on the back that the beautiful variegations fhew themfelves ; the 
feathers which cover this part of the bird, are beyond that of any other of this genus 
in beauty ; they are each of the fame yellowifh-brown colour at the bafe, but to¬ 
ward the tip they are variegated with undulated lines of black and white, which are 
difpofed in a regular and elegant manner, and form, by their affemblage, an elegant 
grey or hoary colour, when viewed at a little diftance; and along the body of the 
feather there run alfo lines formed of alternate black and white fpots, fome of them 
placed fingly, fome in orders of four, three, or two together. 
The long feathers of the wings are twenty-four in number, and the larged: of thefe 
are variegated with brown areoke, ufually four on each feather, and the fmaller have 
ufually three: the intermediate fpecies are of a yellowifh-brown, and are fprinkled 
over with a kind of irroration, as it were, of minute black fpots: the exterior feathers 
are terminated at the ddes by disjunct pinnules, fo that they appear pe&inated, or 
deeply denticulated: the whole wings are fo long, that, when clofed, they reach a little 
beyond the extremity of the tail. 
The tail is compofed of twelve feathers, all very nearly of the fame length, and in 
colour the fame with thofe of the wings; the interior edges of all thefe, as well as 
of thofe of the wings, are white: the legs are robuft and long.; they are covered to 
the toes with a thick plumage of a whitifh colour, but the toes themfelves have only a 
kind of hairinefs in the place of this plumage : the claws are large and formidable, and 
that of the middle toe, in particular, is ferrated on the interior fide, in the manner of 
that of the heron, and fome other birds of that kind, but not fo vifibly : the ferrature, 
however, in the full-grown bird, may always be diftinguifhed. 
This fpecies is extreamly common with us, and in almoft all other parts of Eu¬ 
rope j nor indeed is it peculiar to this, or, as it fhould feem, to any part of the 
world. I have received a fpecimen of it, as a great curiofity, from Sardinia; and 
Marcgrave figures and defcribes it as a native of fo remote a part of the world as the 
Brafils, under the name of Tuidara. Aldrovand, and many of the other writers on 
birds, have called it Aluco minor; fome, Ulula variegata. We call it the Church- 
owl, and the leffer Barn-owl; it hoots in the fame manner as the common joy-owh 
It is frequent among ruined buildings, and in barns and other places where there is 
food for mice and the other creatures on which it preys: it is feldom feen abroad, 
but often heard through a great part of the evening. 
Strix capite lcevi> dorfo plumbeo , rojlro albefcente . 
The fmooth-headed Strix , with a bluifh-grey back y 
and a whitifh beak . 
%$z mitt 
bcaUcn 
This is a very beautiful fpecies; it is fomewhat larger than our common joy-owl, 
and it’s head feems, in a remarkable manner, too big for the body: it Is round, and 
is incircled by a very beautiful feries of pale-coloured feathers, approaching to whitifh, 
and behind thefe there run a feries of fhorter black ones: the back part of the head is 
of a deep and dufky bluifh-grey, and is variegated with a few fpots of white: the 
the eyes are very large, and altogether black ; they feem all iris, and that of this deep 
colour } and they make a very fingular figure, as they appear funk in the head, by 
means of the height of the circle of furrounding feathers: the apertures of the ears 
are wide, but they have no eretf: feries of feathers rifing from them : the beak is 
broad, crooked, and whitifh. 
The back is of a deep dufky lead colour, with a great many fpots of a bright 
white, which form very elegant variegations; and the bread and belly are white, 
and have many fpots of black on them; thefe are not large, nor difpofed with any 
fort of regularity. 
The legs are robuft and long; they are covered with a white and tolerably thick 
plumage down to the toes, and the toes themfelves, with a number of fcattered hairs 
of the fame colour, refembling a kind of rarer plumage : the tail is long, and the 
wings are fo long, that, when clofed, they reach to the end of it. 
This 
