Plate CCCCXXXII. Fig. 3. Female.
Tail rather short, arched, nearly even; wings almost as long as the
tail, the outer four quills cut out on the inner web, the outer five
sinuated on the outer; filaments of the first free and slightly
recurved, as are those of the second and third beyond the sinus.
General colour of upper parts chocolate-brown, the feather of the head
with an oblong median white mark; hind neck with very large white
spots, forming a conspicuous patch; on the back most of the feathers
with a single large subterminal roundish spot, as is the case with the
scapulars and wing-coverts, most of which, however, have two or more
spots; quills with marginal reddish-white spots on both webs, the
third with six on the outer and four on the inner, with two very faint
pale bars toward the end; the tail similarly marked with four bands of
transversely oblong, reddish-white spots; feathers of the anterior
part of the disk whitish, with black shafts, of the lower part
whitish, of the hind part brown tipped with greyish-white; a broad
band of white crossing the throat, and curving upwards on either side
to the ear; a patch of white on the lower part of the fore-neck;
between these a brownish-grey band. Lower parts dull yellowish-white,
each feather with a broad longitudinal band of chocolate-brown;
abdomen and lower tail-coverts unspotted; tarsal feathers dull white.
_Female_, 10-1/2; wing from flex. 6-1/4; tail 3-1/2.
From Nova Scotia eastward. Rather rare.
Little Night Owl, Strix passerina, Aud. v. v. p. 269.