There are specimens in the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park.
Bubo Virginianus, the Virginian Horned-Owl (Slrix Virginians of Vieillott ; Due de Virginia of Buffon ; Netowky-Omeesew of the Cree Indians, according to Mr. Hutchins; Otowack-Oho of the Creea of the plains of the Saskatchewan, according to Sir John Richardson).
Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology,' says that this seems to be a variety of the eagle-owl, although he notices the inferiority in size : but it is a very distinct species.
It is not improbable, as Sir John Richardson observes, that this night-bird, peculiar to America, inhabits that continent from end to end. Cuvier gives his opinion that the Saris Magellanica of the ' Planches Enluminees' differs merely in having browner tints of colour ; and Sir John Richardson mentions the result of Mr. Swain son's comparison of the northern specimens with those of the table land of Mexico, as confirmatory of the identity of the species ; the only difference being a more general rufous and vivid tint of plumage in the Mexican specimens. Almost every part of the United States possesses, this bird, and it is found, according to Richardson, in all the Fur Countries where the timber is of large size.
We have seen how the civilised Romans regarded the European bird ; and it is curious to observe how, in a comparatively savage state, the Ramo superstitious feelings were connected with tho Ameri can species. " The Ravages," asys Pennant, quoting Colden's 'Six Indian Nations,' " have their birds of ill-omen as well as the Romans. They have a most superstitious terror of the owl, which they carry so far as to be highly displeased at any one who mimics its hootings." Lawson, evidently speaking of these birds, says—" They make a fear ful hallooing In the night-time, like a man, whereby they often make strangers lose their way in the woods." Wilson thus describes the haunts and habits of the Virginian Horned-Owl :—" His favourite residence is in the dark solitudes of deep swamps, covered with a growth of gigantic timber; and here, as soon as the evening draws on, and mankind retire to rest, be sends forth such sounds as seem scarcely to belong to this world. . . . . Along the mountain shores of the Ohio, and amidst the deep forests of Indiana, alone, and reposing in the woods, this ghostly watchman has frequently warned me of the approach of morning, and amused me with his singular exclamations, sometimes sweeping down and around my fire, uttering a loud. and sudden Waugh 0 ! Waugh 0 I' sufficient to have alarmed a whole garrison. Ho has other nocturnal solos, one of which very strikingly resembles the halfssuppreseed screams of a person suffocating or throttled." Wilson treats this visitation like a philosopher, but, after
reading his description and that of Nuttall (` Ornithology of the United States'), we shall cease to wonder at the well-told tale in the Fauna Boreali-Americana; of the winter night of agony endured by a party of Scottish Highlanders, who, according to Sir John Richardson, had made their bivouac in the recesses of a North American forest, and inadvertently fed their fire with a part of an Indian tomb which had been placed in the secluded spot. The startling notes of the Virginian Horned-Owl broke upon their ear, and they at once concluded that so unearthly a voice must be the moaning of the spirit of the departed, whose repose they supposed they had disturbed.
The following is Sir John Richardson'm description of the plumage of a specimen, 26 inches in length from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, killed at Fort Chepewyan :— "Bill and claws pale bluish-black. Irides bright yellow. Facial circle of a deep black immediately round the orbit, composed of white mixed with black bristly feathers at the base of the bill, and poste riorly of yellowish brown wiry feathers, tipped with black, and having black shafts. The black tips form a conspicuous border to the facial circle poeteriorly ; but the small feathers behind the auditory opening differ little in colour and appearance from the adjoining plumage of the neck. Egrets composed of ten or twelve dark brown feathers, spotted at the base of their outer webs, and along their whole inner ones, with yellowish brown. Forehead and crown dark blackish brown, finely mottled with grayish-white, and partially exhibiting the yellowish-brown base of the plumage. The whole dorsal plumage is yellowish-brown for more than half the length of each feather from its base, and dark liver-brown upwards, finely barred and indented with undulated white lines. More of the yellowish-brown is visible on the neck and between the shoulders than elsewhere. The primaries pre sent six or seven bars of dark umber or liver-brown, alternating with six bars, which on the outer webs are brownish-white, finely speckled with dark-brown, and on the inner webs are of it bright buff-colour, sparingly speckled with the dark-brown near the shafts. The tips of the feathers have the same mottled appearance with the paler bare of the outer webs. Tho secondaries and tail-feathers are similarly marked to the primaries, but show more white on their outer webs.