Plate CXCIX. Male and Female.
General colour of upper part olivaceous brown; scapulars and some of
the wing-coverts spotted with white; the first six primary quills
obliquely barred with white; tail darker, with two narrow white bars;
upper part of head streaked with greyish-white; disks pale
yellowish-grey; ruff white, spotted with dusky. Lower parts whitish,
the sides and breast marked with broad elongated patches of
brownish-red.
_Male_, 7-1/2, 17. _Female_, 8-1/2, 18.
From North Carolina on the east, and from Columbia River on the west,
northward.
Little Owl, Strix passerina, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. iv. p. 61.
Strix acadica, Bonap. Syn. p. 38.
Strix acadica, American Sparrow Owl, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor.
Amer. v. ii. p. 97.
Acadian Owl, Strix acadica, Nutt. Man. v. i. p. 137.
Little or Acadian Owl, Strix acadica, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. ii.
p. 567: v. v. p. 397.
GENUS III. STRIX, Linn. SCREECH-OWL.
Bill short, compressed, deep, strong; upper mandible with its dorsal
outline straight to the end of the cere, then curved, the sides
nearly flat and erect, the tip deflected, with a rounded but
sharp-edged point; lower mandible with the dorsal line convex, the
sides convex, the edges arched, the tip obliquely truncate. Conch of
the ear semicircular, extending from over the anterior angle of the
eye to the middle of the lower jaw; aperture large, somewhat square,
with an anterior operculum fringed with feathers. Legs rather long,
tarsus long, feathered, scaly at the lower part; toes large, the first
short, the inner nearly as long as the middle, all with series of
small tuberculiform oblong scales, intermixed with a few bristles, and
three broad scutella at the end. Claws arched, long, extremely sharp,
the edge of the third thin and transversely cracked in old birds.
Plumage very soft and downy; facial disks complete. Wings long, ample,
rounded; the first quill with the filaments recurved. Tail rather
short, even.