(VIRGINIAN OWL.)
+Bubo virginianus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 116; _Scl. P. Z.
S._ 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro); _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 433
(Cordova); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 29 (Gualeguaychú). +Bubo
crassirostris+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 439 (Mendoza).
+Bubo magellanicus+, _d'Orb. Voy. Ois._ p. 137; _Salv. Ibis_,
1880, p. 361 (Salta); _Sharpe, Cat. B._ ii. p. 29.
_Description._--Above dull tawny buff, more or less densely mottled
with blackish brown; ear-tufts long, blackish, mixed with tawny
buff; wings tawny buff, with about seven blackish cross bands; tail
tawny buff, tipped with whitish, and with about seven blackish cross
bands: beneath dull ochraceous buff, with dusky brown cross lines;
throat-collar whitish: whole length 19·5 inches, wing 14·5, tail
8·5. _Female_ similar, but rather larger.
_Hab._ North and South America.
This bird, eagle-like in its dimensions, and the largest of our Owls, is
found throughout both Americas, though some authors, relying on certain
trivial variations in size and colour, have separated the southern from
the northern form, and called it _Bubo magellanicus_. In the Argentine
Republic it is well known by its Indian name "Ñacurutú"; also in
Paraguay according to Azara, who says:--"It pronounces its own name in
tones which scare such as pass by night through the deep woods, which
are its palaces."
The habits of the Virginian Owl are too well known to need to be
rewritten in this place: the ornithologists of North America have
supplied several biographies of it, that by Audubon being specially
familiar.