May. The eggs are rather elongated and white, one inch
four lines in length, and eleven lines in breadth. The food
of this small Owl consists of mice and large insects.
The beak is yellowish white ; the irides pale straw yellow;
the top of the head, nape, back, and wings, chocolate brown,
with minute white spots on the top of the head, and larger
white patches on the back and wing-coverts; some smaller
white spots on the lower or distal part of the outer web of
the wing-featliers are arranged so as to give the appearance of
bands; tail-feathers clove brown, with soiled white spots
forming interrupted bars ; tail-feathers extending nearly an
inch beyond the ends of the wings. Facial disk soiled white ;
round the eyes a dark ring forming a band, which is broadest
on the inner side; the ends of the feathers extending over and
hiding the base and sides of the beak : neck, breast, and
belly, greyish white, indistinctly barred and spotted with
clove brown ; under tail-coverts dull white, without spots ;
under surface of tail-feathers greyish white, the light-coloured
spots of the upper surface appearing through ; tarsi and toes
thickly covered with downy feathers of soiled white, slightly
speckled with brown ; claws black, long, curved, and sharp.
The whole length of the bird is from eight and a half to nine
inches.
I t has been doubted whether the Little Owl of Bewick’s
British Birds should be considered as an example of passerina
or Tengmalmi; but that the figure there given is a faithful
representation of the specimen from which it was taken, no one
who is acquainted with the accuracy of Bewick’s delineations
will doubt. The long tarsi in this figure, covered with short
feathers, and the well defined character of the toes, have induced
me to quote it as passerina. In Tengmalmi the tarsi
and toes appear shorter, and their outlines less distinctly visible
from the greater length and thickness of the soft feathery
covering.
1NSESSOTIES. LANIADÆ.
DENTIROSTRES.
GREAT GREY SH R IK E .
Lanius excubitor, Great Shrike, P enn. Brit. Zool. vol. 1. p. 272.
Cinereous ,, Montagu, Ornith. Diet.
Ash-coloured „ B ewick, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 75.
)t if Cinereous ,, P lem. Brit. An. p. 62.
Great ,, S elby, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 148.
, M Cinereous ,, J enyns, Brit. Vert. p. 95.
Great ,, G ould, Birds of Europe, pt. ii.
Pie-grièche grise, T EMM, Man. d’Ornith. vol. i. p. 142.
L anius. Generic Characters.— Bill short, thick and straight at the base,
compressed; upper mandible hooked at the point, with a prominent tooth ; base
of the bill beset with hairs directed forwards. Nostrils basal, lateral, oval.
Wings of moderate size ; the first quill-feather shorter than the second, the
third” the longest. Tarsus longer than the middle toe : feet with three toes
before, one behind ; the outer united at its base to the middle toe.
T he second Order of Birds, the I nsessores, or Perching
Birds, includes a much greater number of species than
either of the other four primary divisions or Orders of the