Length to end of tail about 8 1/4 inches, to end of wings the same, to end of claws 9 1/4; wing from flexure 6 1/8; tail 2 1/2; tarsus 1 4 1/2/8; middle toe 3/4, claw 1/4.
GREAT CINEREOUS OWL.
Strix cinerea, Gmelin.
PLATE CCCLI.
This fine Owl, which is the largest of the North American species, is nowhere common with us, although it ranges from the north-eastern coast of the United States to the sources of the Columbia River. It has been procured near Eastport in Maine, and at Marble Head in Massachusetts, where one of them was taken alive, perched on a wood pile, early in the morning, in February 1831. I went to Salem for the purpose of seeing it, but it had died, and I could not trace its remains. The gentleman, Mr Ives, in whose keeping it had been for several months, fed it on fish and small birds, of which it was very fond. Besides shewing me various marks of attention, he gave me a drawing of it made by his wife, which is still in my possession. It uttered at times a tremulous cry not unlike that of the Little Screech Owl, Strix Asio, and shewed a great antipathy to cats and dogs. In the winter of 1832, I saw one of these Owls flying over the harbour of Boston, Massachusetts, amid several Gulls, all of which continued teasing it until it disappeared. I have seen specimens procured on the Rocky Mountains by Dr Townsend, and several brought to London by the medical officer who accompanied Captain Back in his late Arctic journey. Among the individuals which I have examined I have found considerable differences as to size and markings, which may be attributed to age and sex. My drawing was taken from a remarkably fine specimen in the collection of the Zoological Society of London.
The comparatively small size of this bird’s eyes renders it probable that it hunts by day, and the remarkable smallness of its feet and claws induces me to think that it does not prey on large animals. Dr Richardson says that “it is by no means a rare bird in the Fur Countries, being an inhabitant of all the woody districts, lying between Lake Superior and latitudes 67° or 68°, and between Hudson’s Bay and the Pacific. It is common on the borders of Great Bear Lake; and there, and in the higher parallels of latitude, it must pursue its prey, during the summer months, by day-light. It keeps however within the woods, and does not frequent the barren grounds, like the Snowy Owl, nor is it so often met with in broad day light as the Hawk Owl, but hunts principally when the sun is low; indeed, it is only at such times, when the recesses of the woods are deeply shadowed, that the American hare and the murine animals, on which the Cinereous Owl chiefly preys, come forth to feed. On the 23d of May I discovered a nest of this Owl, built on the top of a lofty balsam poplar, of sticks, and lined with feathers. It contained three young, which were covered with a whitish down. We got them by felling the tree, which was remarkably thick; and whilst this operation was going on, the two parent birds flew in circles round the objects of their cares, keeping, however, so high in the air as to be out of gunshot; they did not appear to be dazzled by the light. The young ones were kept alive for two months, when they made their escape. They had the habit, common also to other Owls, of throwing themselves back, and making a loud snapping noise with their bills, when any one entered the room in which they were kept.”
Strix cinerea, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 291.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 58—Richards. and Swains. Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p 77.
Adult Female. Plate CCCLI.
Bill short, stout, broader than high at the base, its dorsal outline convex to the end of the cere, which is covered with stiffish linear feathers having their barbs separated, the ridge very broad, the sides sloping and nearly flat, the tip compressed, decurved, acute; lower mandible small, with the angle long and wide, the dorsal line convex, the edges sharp, the tip narrow; the gape-line straight, at the end decurved. Nostrils large, elliptical; eyes large, but proportionally smaller than in most other Owls.
The body is slender, anteriorly broad, but seems large and full on account of the great mass of plumage; the neck short; the head extremely large. Feet rather short; the tarsi very short, and feathered; the toes very short and feathered, there being only two or three bare scutella at their extremity. Claws slightly curved, long, slender, compressed, tapering to an extremely narrow point.
Plumage very full, soft, and downy; the feathers generally oblong. Those on the face linear, stiffish, with loose barbs, and disposed in two large disks surrounding the eyes; besides which there is a ruff of softer linear, denser feathers from the forehead, behind the ears, to the chin. The conch of the ear is very large, although greatly exceeded by that of many other Owls, and furnished with an anterior semicircular operculum, beset with slender feathers. Wings very large, concave; primaries, decurved toward the end, the first with the tips of the filaments separated, and recurved in its whole length, the second in its terminal half; the first quill short, being of the same length as the sixth, the second 2 1/2 inches longer, the third 1 1/2 inch longer than the second, 1/4 inch shorter than the fourth, which is the longest, or equals the next. The first five have their outer webs more or less cut out towards the end, and the first seven have their inner webs sinuate. The tail is long, ample, rounded, of twelve broad rounded feathers.