SIR 
S T II 
are very clamorous. In the dusk they approach our dwellings, 
and will frequently enter pigeon-houses, and make great 
havock in them. They destroy number of leverets, as ap¬ 
pears by the legs frequently found in their holes ; they also 
kill abundance of moles. 
29. Strix Arctica, or Arctic owl.—Body rusty-brown, 
above spotted with black, beneath streaked with narrow 
brown lines; bill, orbits, and band under the wings, brown. 
—It inhabits Sweden, and is eighteen inches long. 
30. Strix funerea, or Canada owl.—Body brown, with a 
few large white spots above, beneath, white, with transverse nar¬ 
row brown bars; the tail is long, with broad brown and 
narrow white bars. The head is black, with white points; 
five first inner quill-feathers not spotted on the outer edge; 
the irids are yellow.—This species is found in many parts of 
Europe and North America. 
31. Strix Hudsonia, or hawk-owl.—Feathers above brown, 
with white edges, beneath white, with transverse black lines; 
the bill and irids are golden. This bird is, says Edwards, 
who was the first describer of it, rather larger than a spar¬ 
row-hawk, and has much the air and manner of a hawk, 
from the length of its wings and tail; but the form of the 
head and feet clearly show it to be near of kin to the owl 
kind. The birds of this species fly and prey at noon, which 
is contrary to the nature of most of the owl kind. The bill 
is like a hawk’s, but without angles on the sides, of a bright 
reddish-yellow. Mr Edwards was told that the eyes are of 
the same colour. The spaces round the eyes are white, a 
little shaded with brown, and dashed with small, longish, 
dusky spots; the outsides of these spaces, towards the ears, 
are encompassed with black ; without that again is a little 
white; the bill is covered almost with light-coloured bristly 
feathers, as inmost of the owl kind; the top of the head is 
of a very dark brown, spotted finely with little regular round 
spots of white; round the neck, and down to the middle of 
the back, is dark brown, the feathers seeming to be tipt 
with white; the wings are of a brown colour, the quill and 
covert feathers being finely spotted on their outer webs 
with white; the three quills next the body are not spotted, 
but have whitish tips: the feathers between the back and 
wing are painted with broad transverse bars of brown and 
white; the inner coverts of the wing are white, with trans¬ 
verse lines of brown; the quills withinside are of a dark- 
ash-colour, with white spots on both webs; the prime quill 
is spotless within and without on its outer web, and hardly 
any of that reflecting back of the points of the outer web 
as is observed in owls; the rump and covert-feathers of the 
tail are dark-brown, transversly barred and mixed with a 
lighter brown; the tail on the upper side is dark brown, and 
ash-coloured beneath, composed of twelve feathers, the 
middlemost longer by two inches across than the very outer¬ 
most ; it is barred across by seven or eight transverse narrow 
bars of light brown; the breast, belly, thigh, and coverts 
under the tail, are white across, with narrow brown lines in 
a regular manner; the legs and feet are wholly covered with 
fine soft feathers of the colour of the belly, but the varie¬ 
gating lines are smaller; the claws are sharp, crooked and 
g jinted, and of a dark brown colour. There was, says 
dwards, another of this species brought with this, which 
was a little bigger, and differed something in colour, which 
he imagines was the female of this. These were natives of 
Hudson’s Bay, where its native name is Caparacock. It 
preys on white partridges and other birds, and is so bold as 
to attend near the fowler with his gun, and will sometimes 
carry off a partridge after it is shot, before the sportsman 
can come up to it. Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, says 
this species is common to North America, Denmark, and 
Sweden; it never hatches above two at a time, which for 
months after flight remain of a rusty-brown colour. 
32. Strix Uralensis, or Ural owl.—.Body whitish, with 
longitudinal brown spots in the middle of each feather. The 
bill is of a wax colour; the irids and eye-lids are black ; or¬ 
bits ash; the rump is white; the tail is long and wedged.-— 
It inhabits the mountains of Ural, in Siberia, and is the 
size of a hen. 
(>35 
33. Strix accipitrina, or Caspian owl.—Body above yellow* 
ish beneath yellowish-white, both sides with longitudinal 
blackish streaks, belly dotted with black, irids citron. This 
inhabits near the Caspian sea; and is the size of the brown 
owl. Bill black; wings beneath and vent white; quill-fea¬ 
thers outside yellowish, within white tessellate with black ; 
the tail is rounded, shorter than the wings, blackish barred 
with white, and whitish at the sides. 
34. Strix Javanica.—Body cinereous, in a few places 
reddish, with black and white spots; beneath it is of a dirty 
white, mixed with reddish and black spots. 
35. Strix Nova Scelandia, or New Zealand owl.—Irids 
yellow; body above brown, spotted with white; beneath 
it is twany. There is a variety of which the body is brown, 
the feathers edged with tawny; the tail is brown, with paler 
bars; orbits tawny.—It inhabits New Zealand: is eleven in¬ 
ches long; the bill is horny, with a black tip. 
36. Strix Cayennensis, or Cayenne owl.—Body streaked 
with reddish, and transversely waved with brown : the irids 
are yellow.—It inhabits Cayenne, and is the size of the screech- 
owl. The bill is horny, claws black. 
37. Strix Dominicensis, or St. Domingo owl.—Body 
beneath rufous; breast a little spotted.—It inhabits St. Do¬ 
mingo ; resembles the brown owl: bill larger, stronger, 
and more hooked. 
38. Strix tolchiquatli, or New.Spain owl.—Irids pale yel¬ 
low; body above variegated with black, pale-yellow, white 
and tawny; beneath white. The bill, claws, and lower 
wing-coverts, black.—It inhabits New Spain. 
39. Strix chichictli, or Mexican owl.—Body tawny, varie¬ 
gated with brown and black; the eyes are black, the eye¬ 
lids blue.—It inhabits New Spain, and is about the size of a 
hen. 
40. Strix Acadica, or Acadian owl.—Body above bright 
bay, spotted with white; beneath dirty-white, mixed with 
rusty. The bill is brown, the irids yellow, crown, with 
pale spots; orbits cinereous; toes brown. It inhabits North 
America, and is seven inches long. 
41. ,Strix passerina, or little owl.—Quill-feathers with 
five rows of white spots. There are two other varieties. 1. 
Smaller, eyes surrounded with white circles. 2. Larger; 
wings variegated with brown and yellow; the chin is white: 
the bird is twelve inches long.—This species is found in 
many parts of Europe, but is rare in England. It appears 
to vary not only in the cast of its plumage, but in the colour 
of its irids, which, in some specimens, are said to be of a 
darker colour than those in which the irids are yellow. The 
passerine owl frequents ruins, and is said to deposit its eggs in 
such situations more frequently than in trees. 
STRIXTON, a parish of England, in Northamptonshire; 
4 miles south-by-east of Wellingborough. 
STROBILUS [<rrj>o/3<X>s, Gr.], in Botany and Vegetable 
Physiology, a name applied by the Greeks to the cone of a 
fir-tree, and adopted in the same sense by modern botanists, 
for every seed-vessel of the same structure and character. 
See Botany. 
STROBULUS, among the Ancients, a kind of mitre, 
which rose to a height by many windings and turnings, and 
was used by the Barbarians; instead of which, the Romans 
wore the apex, which had a high but straight top. 
STROEMIA [so denominated by the late Professor Vahl, 
in honour of the Rev. Hans Stroem, a clergyman at Eger, 
in Norway, author of some botanical and zoological trea¬ 
tises], in Botany, a genus of the class pentandria, order mo- 
nogynia, natural order capparides (Juss .)—Generic Cha¬ 
racter. Calyx: perianth inferior, of four ovate, acute, deci¬ 
duous leaves; the two outer ones concave; inner flat. Co¬ 
rolla : petals four, lanceolate, all turned to one side, wavy, 
with claws, the length of the calyx; sometimes wanting. 
Nectary of one-leaf, ligulate, lanceolate, ascending, inserted 
into the elongated receptacle towards its base; its tube slen¬ 
der, longer than the petals. Stamina: filaments five, some¬ 
times but four, thread-shaped, unequal, inserted into the stalk 
of the germen, two in the middle, three below, longer than 
the nectary; anthers oblong, erect. Pistil: germen on a 
stalk 
