ACCIl'ITUKS. 



173 



chieflv during twilight, or by the light of the moon. When attacked by day, or struck by the 

 appearance of some new ohject, they [the majority of them] do not fly off, hut stand more 

 erect, assume grotesque attitudes, and make the most ludicrous gestures. 



Their stomach is tolerahly muscular, [as compared with tlic Falcons,] although their prey 

 is wholly animal, consisting of Mice, small birds, [even fish in some instances,] and insects; 



but is preceded by a large craw, [an inadvertent statement 

 of the author, as the absence of any expansion of the 

 gullet, which is wide, but always of uniform diameter (see 

 fig. 70 a), invariably distinguishes the nocturnal from all the 

 diurnal birds of prey] ; the ceeca (b) are long, and enlarged 

 towards the extremity, &c. Small Birds have a natural 

 antipathy to them, and assemble from all parts to assail 

 them ; hence they are employed to attract Birds to the 

 snare. [It may be added, that their tarsi are in no in- 

 ■a stance scaled, even when denuded of feathers, as in the 

 subdivision Ketupa ; all of them lay round white eggs.] 

 They form one genus, that of 



The Owls {Strix, Linn.), — 



Which may he divirled according to their head-tufts, the size of 



their ears, the extent of the circle of feathers which surrounds 



their eyes, and some other characters. 



Those species which around the eyes have a large complete 



disk of fringed feathers, itself surrounded by a circle or collar of 



scaly feathers, and between the two a large opening for the ear 



(see fig. 80), are more removed in their form and manners from 



the diurnal Birds of Prey, than those in which the ear is small, 



oval, and covered by fringed feathers which come from below 



the eye. Traces of these differences are perceptible even in the 



skeleton, [though only as regards the degree of stoutness of the 



Fig. 70 -Aiin, e nt»rTc.nain f ,n o w i :„,,!„ gullet, bones (see figs. 81 and 84), there being no gradation or tranai- 

 devoid of „> y cr.w , a, the caeca.- tinn int0 the f a i conS) either in the skeleton or digestive organs. 



The following arrangement of the Owls, based on the comparative size of the aperture of the ear, is 

 liable to the objection of dispersing some nearly allied groups, and approximating others that are less 

 so, which is almost necessarily the result of too exclusive attachment to any single character.] 

 Among the first species, we will distinguish 



The HiBOf/x (Otus, Cuv.), — 



Which have two tufts of feathers (vulg. hornx) which they 

 can erect at will, and the ear-conch of which (fig. 80), 

 extends in a semicircle from the beak almost to the top of 

 the head, and is furnished anteriorly with a membranous 

 operculum. Their feet are feathered to the toes. Such, in 

 Europe, are 



The Long-tufted Hibou [Str. otut, Lin.).— Very widely diptri- 



. it inhabits woniU, especially those of lir and other ever- 

 greens, and breedi genet ally in deserted < .rows' nests : and 



The Short-tufted Hibou (8tr. brackyotus, Lin.).— Found almost 

 every win re, [if indeed the same species, which there is reason to 

 doubt : it inhabits open moors, breeds on the ground, and exhibits 

 trifling sexual disparity of size. This hud is scarcely, if at nil, 

 dasxled by Bun-light \ it is the Brachyotu* paluttrii of Gould]. 



We apply 'he designation of 



Fig. 8(1.- K»r .I Hibou, »« ubacrved t>v rvilot In ante 

 n r Lip. 



• Copied from M. M'lollivrar's Rapx loai Birds of Britain. 



