remarkably concave below, barred with six broad bars of brown and as many narrow ones of
white. The back and shoulders have a cast of chestnut. At each internal angle of the eye
is a broad black spot. The plumage of the radiated circle round the eye ends in long black
hairs, and the bill is encompassed by others of a longer and more bristly kind; these probably
serve to guard the eye when any danger approaches it, in sweeping hastily through the woods;
and those usually found on Fly-catchers may have the same intention to fulfil; for on the
slightest touch of the point of any of these hairs, the nictitant membrane was instantly thrown
over the eye.
“ Thq female is twenty-two inches long and four feet in extent; the chief difference of colour
consists in her wings being broadly spotted with white, the shoulder being a plain chocolate-
brown. The tail extends considerably beyond the tips of the wings. The bill is much longer,
and of a more golden yellow. Iris of the eye the same as that of the male.”
In addition to Wilson’s very excellent description, I may remark, that the toes
are only half covered with feathers, there being seven transverse scales visible
next the claws. The fifth quill feather is the longest«5, the fourth equals the
sixth, the third equals the seventh, the second equals the eighth, and the first is
shorter than the ninth, but longer than the tenth. The tail is tipped with white.
[22.] 5. Strix (Bubo) Virginiana. (Gmelin.) Virginian Homed Owl.
G e n u s . Strix. L i n n . Sub-genus. Bubo. C u v i e r .
The Great Homed Owl. (Otus Americanus.) E d w a r d s , pi. 60.
Homed Owl. E l l i s . Huds. Bay, p. 4 0 , t . 2 .
Duc d e V irg in ie . B u f f . Planch. Enl., 2 0 7 , f . 1- Virginian Eagle-Owl. L a t h . Syn., i., p . 1 1 9 , sp. 2 . I d e m . Suppl, p . 40.
Eagle-Owl. P e n n . Arct. Zool., ii., p . 2 2 8 , No. 1 1 4 . (The author deeming it to be
a variety of the Eagle-Owl of Brit. Zool.)
Strix Virginiana. L a t h . Ind., i „ p . 62 , sp . 2 . V i e i l l o t . Ois. de VAm,., i., p i. 19.
Great Homed Owl. (Strix Virginiana.) W il s o n , vi., p. 52, pi. 50, f. 1.
Strix Virginiana. V i e i l l o t . Enc. Mcth., 1282. B o n a p . Syn., p. 37, No. 27.
Netowky-omeesew. Cjr.ee I n d ia n s . (Mr. Hutchins.)
Otowuck-oho. C r é é s of. the Plains of the Saskatchewan.
This large night-bird is peculiar to America, and most probably inhabits that
continent from one end to the other; Cuvier being of opinion that the Strix
Magellanica of the Planches Enluminées (585) differs from it merely in having
* In a specimen in the British Museum. Forster, in his original description, says, “ Remex sextus reliquis longior,
apice magis nigricans ; primus vero reliquis primoribus brevior. Remiges reliqui pallidiores obscurms fasciati.”
browner tints of colour : neither is it uncommon on the Table Land of Mexico.
Specimens that were sent to John Taylor, Esq., F.R.S., from the vicinity of Real
del Monte, have been compared, by Mr. Swainson, with those procured in the
northern regions. They presented no other difference than what might be expected
in regard to the colour of individuals from localities so widely different.
In those from Mexico the rufous tints of the plumage were more general and much
brighter*. The Virginian Horned Owl is found in almost every quarter of the
United States, and occurs in all parts of the fur-countries where the timber is
of a large size. Its loud and full nocturnal cry, issuing from the gloomy recesses
of the forest, bears some resemblance to the human voice uttered in a hollow
sepulchral tone, and has been frequently productive of alarm to the traveller, of
which an instance occurred within my own knowledge. A party of Scottish Highlanders,
in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company, happened, in a winter
journey, to encamp after nightfall in a dense clump of trees, whose dark tops
and lofty stems, the growth of centuries, gave a solemnity to the scene that
strongly tended to excite the superstitious feelings of the Highlanders. The
effect was heightened by the discovery of a tomb, which, with a natural taste often
exhibited by the Indians, had been placed in this secluded spot. Our travellers
having finished their supper, were trimming their fire preparatory to retiring to
rest, when the slow and dismal notes of the Horned Owl fell on the ear with a
startling nearness. None of them being acquainted with the sound, they at once
concluded that so unearthly a voice must be the moaning of the spirit of the
departed, whose repose they supposed they had disturbed, by inadvertently making
a fire of some of the wood of which his tomb had been constructed. They
passed a tedious night of fear, and with the first dawn of day hastily quitted the
ill-Tomhee nVeidrg sinpioatn. Horned Owl preys on the American hare, Hudson’s Bay squirrel,
mice, wood-grouse, &c. It builds its nest of sticks on the top of a lofty tree,
hatches in March, and its young, two or three in number, are generally fully
fledIng etdh ei ns iJzuen aen. d Isttsr uecgtugrse aorfe twheh ietae.r—s, Rin. the imperfect facial disk, in the shortness
of the tarsi, and in the relative proportions of the claws, there is a close
resemblance between this bird and Strix nyctea. The first quill feather is shorter
than the fifth, but is nearer to it than to the sixth in length; the second and fourth
• Lewis and Clark state, that they saw the “ Large Hooting Owl,” to the westward of the Rocky Mountains only
on the Kooskooskee; and that it was of the same size and form with the Owl of the United States, though its colours,
particularly the reddish-brown, seemed deeper and brighter.
M 2