OWLS. 391 



with small prominent scales. The first toe is shortest, and 

 admits' of much lateral motion ; the fourth or outer is next in 

 length, and capable of being turned backwards, so that when 

 the bird is perched, the first and fourth toes are opposed to the 

 second and third. The toes have two or three scutella at the 

 end, and are padded and papillate beneath. The claws are 

 long, well curved, tapering, very narrow beneath, and extremely 

 acute. 



The plumage is remarkable for its mass, and the softness of 

 its texture. On the sides of the head are slender radiating 

 feathers, having loose and more or less bristly filaments, and 

 forming two circular disks or masks, which are sometimes com- 

 plete, but often deficient above the eye, in which case the 

 feathers there are of ordinary texture. Another remarkable 

 feature is formed by a kind of ruff, formed of narrow recurved 

 feathers, arranged in several series. It sometimes extends on 

 each side from the anterior part of the forehead, round the disk 

 and behind the ear, to the chin, or angle of the lower mandible, 

 and is then said to be complete ; but sometimes it occupies 

 only a portion of the posterior margin of the disk. The larger 

 the ear the more extended the ruff, so that in those species 

 which have the external auditory organ small, the ruff is scarcely 

 apparent. On the upper part of the head the feathers are of 

 moderate length ; and sometimes on each side of the head is a 

 tuft of elongated feathers, which on being erected suggests the 

 idea of a horn or ear, thus giving rise to the erroneous names 

 of Horned Owls and Eared Owls. On the neck the feathers 

 are long, soft, and elastic ; on the body ovate, those on the 

 lower parts of looser texture, and on the abdomen entirely downy. 

 An elongated tuft is seen on the femur, but never on the tibia, 

 as in most falconine birds. The shafts of the feathers are slen- 

 der and very easily broken ; they have a short tufty plumule ; 

 their downy parts occupy more than three -fourths of their 

 extent ; and frequently their surface is villous or tomentose, 

 being covered with delicate barbicels, which are generally more 

 apparent on the quills. Numerous very slender hairs, termin- 

 ated by a few filaments, are interspersed among the plumage. 

 The wings are always broad, generally long, and more or less 

 rounded ; the primary quills ten. the secondary thirteen or fif- 



