face of light brown; feathers of the back, wing-coverts,
secondaries, and tertials, a speckled mixture of black and dark
brown on pale brown; wing-primaries light chesnut brown,
barred and speckled with darker brown ; the second quill-
feather the longest, and the wing when closed reaching a little
beyond the end of the ta il; upper surface of tail-feathers the
same colour; feathers of the breast and belly a mixture of
greyish white and pale brown, with longitudinal streaks of
umber brown ; thighs and under tail-coverts uniform pale
brown ; under surface of tail-feathers greyish white, with narrow
transverse bars of dusky brown; legs and toes covered
with short uniform pale brown feathers; the extreme ends of
the anterior toes bare; claws rather long, curved, very sharp
and black.
M. Temminck says the females have. the throat white ;
but I think not till after their first moult, or even later.
I have not observed much difference in the sexes either in
colour or size.
T. he whole length is from fourteen to fifteen inches.
The vignette represents the orifice of the ear in this species,
from the work of Mr. Macgillivray on the Rapacious
Birds of Great Britain.
RAPTORES. s t r i g i d a :.
SHORT-EARED OWL.
Strix brachyotos, Short-eared Owl, P enn Brit. Zool. vol. i. p. 260.
,, ,, ,, ,, Mont. Ornith. Diet.
,, ,, „ ,, B ewick, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 62.
Otus ,, Short Horn ,, F lem. Brit. An. p. 56.
,, ,, Short-eared ,, Selby, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 88.
f „ ,, ,, J enyns, Brit. Vert. p. 92.
*2' ,, ,, ,, Gould, Birds of Europe, pt. xviii.
Strix ,, Hibou brachiote, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. vol. i. p. 99.
T h e S h o r t - e a r e d Own is not only numerous as a species,
but is also very widely diffused, as the localities in
various countries to be hereafter named will show. Unlike
the species last described, which hides itself in large woods