I procured a fine male of this species at Bangor, in Maine, on the Penobscot River, in the beginning of September 1832; but am unacquainted with its habits, never having seen another individual alive. Dr Townsend informs me that he found it first on the Malade River Mountains, where it was so tame and unsuspicious, that Mr Nuttall was enabled to approach within a few feet of it, as it sat upon the bushes. Dr Richardson gives the following notice respecting it in the Fauna Boreali-Americana:—“When it accidentally wanders abroad in the day, it is so much dazzled by the light of the sun as to become stupid, and it may then be easily caught by the hand. Its cry in the night is a single melancholy note, repeated at intervals of a minute or two. Mr Hutchins informs us that it builds a nest of grass half-way up a pine tree, and lays two white eggs in the month of May. It feeds on mice and beetles. I cannot state the extent of its range, but believe that it inhabits all the woody country from Great Slave Lake to the United States. On the banks of the Saskatchewan it is so common that its voice is heard almost every night by the traveller, wherever he selects his bivouac.”
Strix Tengmalmi, Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 291.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 65.
Strix Tengmalmi, Tengmalm’s Owl, Swains. and Richards. Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p. 94.
Adult Male. Plate CCCLXXX. Fig. 1.
Bill short, very deep, strong; upper mandible with its dorsal line curved from the base, its ridge convex, as are the sides, the edges sharp and incurved anteriorly, the tip very acute, and at its extremity nearly perpendicular; the cere short, and bare on its upper part; the lower mandible has the angle broad and short, the dorsal line slightly convex, the edges inflected, towards the end incurved, with a notch on each side close to the abruptly-rounded tip. Nostrils broadly elliptical, oblique, in the fore part of the cere, which bulges considerably behind them.
The head is extremely large, roundish, when viewed from above somewhat triangular; the eyes large. The conch of the ear very large, of an elliptical form, extending from the base of the lower jaw to near the top of the head, being an inch and a quarter in length, with an anterior semicircular operculum stretching along its whole length, and an elevated margin behind. The neck is very short and thin; the body very slender; but both appear very full on account of the vast mass of plumage. The feet are rather short, and strong; the tarsi and toes covered with very soft downy feathers, the extremities of the latter with two scutella. The claws are slender, tapering to a fine point, compressed, and curved.
The facial disk is complete, as is the ruff. The plumage is full, very soft, and blended; the feathers broadly oblong and rounded. The wings are rather long, very broad, much rounded; the third primary longest, the fourth almost equal, the second four-twelfths of an inch shorter, the first equal to the seventh; the barbs of the outer web of the first, of half the second, and the terminal part of the third, free and recurved. Tail of moderate length, arched, slightly rounded, of twelve broad, rounded feathers.
Bill greyish-brown, yellowish-white at the end; claws yellowish-brown, their tips dusky. The general colour of the upper parts is greyish-brown tinged with olive. The feathers of the head have an elliptical central white spot; those of the neck are similarly marked with larger white spots, of which some are disposed so as to form a semicircular band; the scapulars have two or four large round spots near the end, and some of the dorsal feathers and wing-coverts have single spots on the outer web. All the quills have marginal white spots on both webs, arranged in transverse series, there being six on the outer web of the third quill. On the tail are five series of transversely elongated narrow white spots. The disk is yellowish-white, anteriorly black; the ruff yellowish-white, mottled with dusky. The throat is brown, the chin white. The general colour of the lower parts is yellowish-white, longitudinally streaked with brown, some of the feathers of the sides have two white spots near the end; the tarsal and digital feathers greyish-yellow, with faint transverse bars of brown.
Length to end of tail 11 inches; wing from flexure 6 10/12; bill along the ridge 1; tarsus 11/12; hind toe 5/12, its claw 5/12; middle toe 9/12, its claw 8/12.
Adult Female. Plate CCCLXXX. Fig. 2.