a mixture of reddish brown and dark brown, the darker colour
occupying the centre of each feather, forming streaks ; the
other parts of the web mottled ; wing-primaries and tail-
feathers similar in colour, but barred transversely ; the feathers
of the facial disk light brown speckled with greyish
black, those under the disk white; breast pale brown, with
longitudinal patches of dark brown ; belly, under tail-coverts,
thighs, legs, and toes, pale brown, with numerous narrow
transverse bars of dark brown ; under surface of tail-feathers
dusky brown, barred with pale brown ; claws long, curved,
and black. The whole length of a specimen is from twenty-
four to twenty-eight inches, the difference depending upon
sex and age. Two preserved specimens of females in the
Museum of the Zoological Society are darker in the general
colour of their plumage than a male in the same collection,
and both have the throat white. They are old birds.
R APTORES. STRIGIDÆ.
TH E SCOPS EARED OWL.
Strix Scops, Little Homed Owl, Mont. Suppl, to Ornith. Diet.
„ ,, Scops Eared Owl, B ewick, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 71.
Scops Aldrovandi, Scops Owl, F lem. Brit. An. p. 57.
,, ,, ,, Eared Owl, Selby, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 92.
Bubo Scops, ,, ,, ,, J enyns, Brit. Vert. p. 91.
Scops Aldrovandi, ,, ,, ,, Gould, Birds of Europe, pt. ix.
Strix Scops, Hibou Scops, T emm. Man. d’Ornith. vol. i. p. 103.
Scops. Generic Characters.—Head furnished with two tufts of feathers.
Beak curved from the base. The nostrils round. Facial disk incomplete, not
extending over the forehead ; auditory conch small, and without an operculum.
Wings long, reaching to the end of the tail; the third quill-feather generally
the longest. Legs rather long, feathered to the junction of the toes ; the toes
naked; claws curved and sharp.
T his little tufted Owl, one of the smallest of the family
found in this country, was first noticed as a British Bird by
VOL. I.