CINEREOUS
O.
N. S. -
Description.
JSr. Muf
J E N G T H twenty inches: about the fize and bulk of the
laft. Bill whitifh-. the circle of feathers furrounding the
face is black clofe to the eye, over the eye palifh, and juft at
the bill whitifh : each feather, for the moft part, is of an afh-
colour, and crofied with feveral lines of black; the feathers
which terminate the circle are alfo tipped with black, mixed with
buff-colour j by this means the eye appears placed in the middle
of alternate circles of black and afh-colour : the plumage on the
upper parts of the body is mottled with afh-colour and black :
thighs the fame, but paler, crofied with diftinft brown lines : the
wings and upper parts of the body are inclined to brown, and on
the quills are mottled bars of afh-colour : legs feathered to the
toes: claws dufky. The whole bird appears as if foiled with
light foot-colour.
Inhabits Hudfon's Bay.
10.
ALUCO
O.
Strix Aluco, Lin. Syji. i. p. 132. N® 7.
■■ — — — Scop, Ann. i. p. 20. N° 4.
La Hulote, Brtf orn. i. p. 507. N° 3.
La Hulotte, Buf. oif. i. p. 358.
--------- -----PL ml. 441.
Grave-Eule, Frifcb. t. 94.
Aldrovandus’s former Aluco, Will, orn. p. 104. t. 13 ?
J INNA SU S feems here to be at crofs-purpofes, as he quotes,
after the above fynonyms, the Fauna Suecica, N* 72 ; which
plainly refers to the White or Barn Owl; as alfo the Br. Zool.
folio
and a pure white: it is full as long as my bird, and is probably of the fame
fex; and that mentioned by J)r% Forjler, from its being fo much lefs, may
perhaps prove the oppofite.
0 W L . *35
folio t. B. i. or Sreww Owl of Pennant, N° 69: however, I believe
he really means the Aluco of Aldrovandus« if fo, the de-
fcription runs thus, according to M. de Buffon :
The head is large : the eyes furrounded with greyifh feathers : Discp.iftioniris
blackiih, or rather of a deep brown or hazel: bill yellowifli-
white or greenifh: body above of a deep iron-grey, marked with
both black and whitifh fpots : beneath white, with both tranf-
verfe and longitudinal black marks: tail above fix inches
long: the wings reach a little beyond it ■ extent of the wings
three feet: legs covered to the toes with white feathers, marked
with fmall black fpots: the firft quill-feather is two or
three inches Ihorter than the fecond ; the fecond Ihorter by one
inch than the third; and the longeft of all are the fourth and
fifth: whereas in. the White Owl, the fecond and third are the
longeft, and the firft Ihorter than thefe by only one inch.
Length of the bird fifteen inches.
To this Briffon adds, that the tail is barred with rufo-cinereous
and black.
This Owl keeps, during the fummer-time, wholly in woods, Manners.
in hollow trees. In winter it fometimes approaches habitations.
It lives on field and other mice, which it fwallows whole. When
thefe fail, it has recourfe to barns, where it catches both rats and
mice ; returning to the woods to pafs the day, perched on fome
decayed branch in the thickeft recefies; during which it refts
without changing place. It is faid to lay four eggs, about the
fize of thofe of a Hen, and of a dirty grey colour; and, like the
Greater Horn-owl, makes ule of the old nefts of the Buzzard,
Keftrii, Crow, or Magpie, for this purpofe. This is an European
bird, but is not,. as far as I can learn, an inhabitant of
England. |jjL