Plumage variegated with brown, gray, black, and rufous.

Strix Scops, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. i. p. 103. Scops-eared Owl, Selb. Illust. vol. I. p. 92. pi. 22. Bern. Brit. Birds, vol. I. p. 67. Little-horned Owl, Mont. Orn. Diet. Supp. App.

Dimensions

Entire length seven inches and a half. Flem.

Description

Head, neck, and egrets, (the latter consisting of six or eight feathers,) brownish gray, speckled with black; rest of the upper parts reddish ash, with spots and zigzag streaks of black and brown: under parts ash-gray, streaked and speckled with black and reddish brown: quills barred with white: tail variegated with black, brown, and white: bill black: irides yellow: toes bluish gray. (Egg). Of a short oval form: white, with a few faint dusky specks: long. diam. one inch three lines; trans, diam. one inch and half a line.

Very rare. Has been killed near York, and in one or two other parts of the country. Is probably migratory. Preys on mice and insects. Obs. The Strix pulchella of Donovan (Brit. Birds, vol. vii. pl. 165). appears to be the same as this species.