16.
SIBERIAN
E. O.
PI. V. fig. i.
D escription.
to become an heavy fcourge to thofe parts which they infeft,
eating up all the corn. On this occalion it has happened, - that
thefe Owls have arrived in large troops, and have attacked thofe
depredators fo fuccefsfully, as to deftroy the whole of them in
a lhort time *.
Stryx Pulchella, Pallas Tran. vol. i. p. 456. N° 8.
Strix capite aurito, e Gente fua minima, &c. Nov. com« ac. Petrop. vol. xv.
p. 490. t. 26. f. 1.
Lev. Muf.
T HIS fpecies well deferves the name given to it by Dr. Pallas,
as it is a moll: beautifully pencilled bird. I Ihould think it
the lead: of all the fpecies hitherto known, being in length only
fix inches f ; if any thing, rather lefs: the weight very little more
than one ounce. The head is lefs tumid than in the pajferina,
and fmaller in proportion, and above all, is remarkably eared.
The bill is brown : the irides of a pale yellow: the eared feathers
above one inch in length : the circle of feathers which fur-
rounds the eyes is fmall, and above the eyes fcarcely perceivable;
towards the eyes is a white fpot: the body above is cinereous,
delicately powdered and undulated: the lhaft of each feather
brown; beneath whitilh, with broad black lhafts, and fcattered
* A remark of the fame kind is mentioned by Dale, after Childrey, to this
purport: e< In the year 1580, at Hallontide, an army of mice fo over-run the
marfhes near South Minjier, that they eat up the grafs to the very roots; but at
length a great number of ftrange painted Owls came and devoured all the mice.
The like happened in EJJese in 1648.” Dale, Harwich, app. p. 397. note 2.
Thefe muft have been one of our Eared Owls above-mentioned, and not the
Scops, as M. de Buffbn thinks.
+ The Peterjburgb Tranfaftions fay above nine inches.
10 here