142 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



toms of the people above the Yellala Falls on the Congo, Tuckey says 

 fowls, eggs, manioc, and fruits, " seem all to belong to the women, the 

 men never disposing of them without first consulting their waves, to 

 whom the beads are given." 



Thus there are many things at variance with the theory which sets 

 out by assuming that " the infancy of society " is exhibited in the 

 patriarchal group. As was implied in the chapters on the " Primitive 

 Relations of the Sexes," on "Promiscuity," on "Polyandry," the 

 earliest social groups were without domestic organization as they 

 were without political organization. Instead of patriarchal cluster, 

 at once family and rudimentary state, there was at first an aggregate of 

 males and females without settled arrangements, and having no rela- 

 tions save those established by force and changed when the stronger 

 willed. 



OUR AMERICAN OWLS. 



By Professor SAMUEL LOCKWOOD. 



THE owls are rapacious birds, and in company with all the true 

 birds of prey belong to the great order Haptores. The order 

 branches into two large groups, known respectively as the diurnal 

 and the nocturnal birds of prey. To the Dhirnes belong the vultures, 

 hawks, and eagles ; to the Nocturnes belong the owls. 



If Mrs. Malaprop cannot see why the owl is a "rapturous bird," 

 she can admit its claim to openness of countenance. Once seen, the 

 owl can never be mistaken ; its flat, pussy face, and large, brassy cat- 

 eyes, set square in front of the head, are so imbirdlike. It was a 

 London holiday ; a shop-woman and her daughter stood before the 

 cage of Nocturnal Raptores at the " Zoo." Said the elder, " See 

 these heagles ! " to which the younger replied, " Them isn't heagles, 

 they're 'awks." " If you please," interposed a servant standing 

 near, " them isn't heagles nor 'awks, they're howls. My maister's son 

 once kept one." 



The owls are found nearly the whole world over. The books 

 mention about two hundred species, as species are yet understood, 

 and queer specimens are they every one. As a rule, how trim, spruce, 

 compact, and graceful are the falcons, the typical birds of prey ! 

 How fluffy, squatty, and dowdyish is the typical owd ! Whether it 

 means little or much, it is thus with the Diurnal and the Nocturnal 

 Lepidoptera. As the elder naturalist said : " If any analogy is allow- 

 able between different tribes of animals, the owls might be said to re- 

 semble moths" (the night-fliers), " and to differ from tlie diurnal birds 

 of i^rey as these do from the butterflies " (the day-fliers). These birds 



