ALUCONID.E: BARN OWLS. 621 



wonted activity after nightfall. Owing to the jjeculiar texture of the plumage, their flight is 

 perfectly noiseless, like the mincing steps of a cat ; and no entirely fanciful analogy has been 

 drawn between these birds and the feline carnivora that chiefly prey stealthily in the dark. 

 The nest is commonly a rude affair of sticks gathered in the various places of diurnal resort; 

 the eggs are several (commonly 3-G), white, subspherical. The 9> '^s a rule, is larger than 

 (J, but the sexes are alike in color; the coloration is commonly blended and diffuse, difficult of 

 concise description. Owls feed entirely upon animal substances, and capture their prey alive 

 — small quadrupeds and birds, reptiles and insects, and even fish. Like most other Raptores, 

 they eject from the mouth, after a meal, bones, hair, feathers, and other indigestible sub- 

 stances, made up into a pellet. They are noted for their loud outcries, so strange and often so 

 lugubrious, that it is no wonder traditional superstition places these dismal night-birds in the 

 category of things ill-omened. Besides the well-known lines which are set beneath two f)f the 

 accompanying figures, the reader may recall the Owl as among the 'portents weird' whic'a 

 foretell the fate of the unhappy queen of Carthage, when, deserted by 'pious' ^Eneas, she 

 resolves to die. 



" Solaque culminibus ferali carmine huho 

 Saepe queri, et longas iu fletum ducere voces." — Vero , ^n., iv. 4G2. 



The hoot-owl, brooding ominous above 



Her fateful house, is wearing dismal night away 



With wild vociferation. Portents weird, etc. 



Owls are among the most completely cosmopolitan birds; with minor modifications ac- 

 cording to circumstances, their general habits are much the same the world over. A difficulty 

 of correctly estimating the number of species arises from tlie fact that many, especially of the 

 more generalized types, have a wide geographical distribution, and, as in nearly all such cases, 

 they split into more or less easily recognized races, the interpretation <jf which is at present a 

 matter of opinion rather than a settled issue. About 200 species pass current ; out of about 50 

 generic names now in vogue, probably less than one-half represent some structural peculiarity. 



Family ALUCONID^: Barn Owls. 

 (Fam. STRIGID.E of A. 0. U. Lists.) 



Two genera of Owls, Aluco and Heliodilus, difi'er so much from other Striges that they 

 may properly constitute a family apart from StrigidcB. The prime character is anchylosis of 

 furculum with sternum, which latter bone has no manubrium in front and is entire behind (un- 

 usual ; compare fig. 5<)). There is no bony canal for the passage of the extensor tendon of the 

 toes. External characters are : facial disc and outer ear-parts highly developed, the former 

 not circular, but rather triangular, the latter symmetrical ; middle and inner toes of about equal 

 lengths; inner edge of middle claw serrate or jagged, simulating the pectination seen in Capri- 

 midgidcB, to which birds these Owls are curiously related through Steatortm. The pterylosis, 

 as well as pattern of coloration, is peculiar: the plumage is very downy ; the habits of the 

 species are eminently nocturnal. The U'a<ling genus, Aluco, of several species or races, is 

 nearly cosmop<ditan, being absent only from high latitudes and some insular rcirions. The 

 other genus, Heliodilus, is a Madagascan tyi)e. A third genus, Phodilus or Pholodilns, of 

 which one species, P. badius. inhabits portions of eastern Asia, Ceylon, Java, and Borneo, 

 is the connecting link with the other family, and Udw removed thereto, though long kept in 

 the present one. It has no manubrium sterni and no bony canal of the tarso-metatarsus, but 

 the sternum is notched behind, and the incomplete clavicles do not reach its keel ; the outer 

 toe has only 4 phalanges. The gentral external aspect of P. hndius resembles that of the 

 I?arn Owls. — X. 15. Adoption <<{ Ahico for IJani Owls, instead o( Stri.r, rcquiri's the present 



