640 SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — RAPTOR ES — STRIGES. 



good a fisherman as it is bold a fowler. It has never been ascertained to breed in the U. S., 

 though it may have done so in Maine, as it certainly does a little i'arther north in Nova 

 Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Labrador, Manitoba, and thence N. to the Arctic 

 Ocean. The nest is built upon the ground or rocks, of mosses lined with feathers ; the eggs 

 are 3 to 10, usually 5, 6 or 7, laid at intervals (as is the case with various other Owls), so that 

 the nest may contain fresh and incubated eggs and young birds at once ; they are lustreless, 

 roughly granular, even faintly corrugated lengthwise, equal-ended, but not much rounded, 

 being about 2.25 X 1-75. Only one clutch is deposited annually, mostly in May or June. 

 {Nyctea nivea and N. scanfZmca of authors, as of previous editions of the Key; but our rules 

 require us now to use the inelegant and displeasing tautonym, Nyctea nyctea.) 

 SUR'NIA. (Etymology of Siirnia or Syrniiim, unknown. There is no recognized classic 

 Greek or Latin word from which the name can be derived, but I find uvpviov, sttrnion, cited by 

 Brisson as a modern Greek name of Strix stridula, and this is obviously the source of both Stir- 

 nia and Syrnium. The former dates in systematic zoology from Dumeril, Zool. Anal. 1806, 

 p. 34.) Hawk Owls. Skull and ear-parts much as in Bubo or Nyctea ; latter non-operculate, 

 the opening of small size ; facial disc very little developed, and eyes not centric to it ; no plunii- 

 corns. Wings folding far short of end of tail ; 3d primary longest; first 4 emarginate on inner 

 webs. Tail remarkably long, little shorter than wing, much graduated, with lanceolate 

 feathers. Feet thickly and completely feathered to the claws ; tarsus scarcely or not longer 

 than middle toe. Of medium size, with a peculiarly neat and dressy appearance for an Owl, 

 the whole plumage being more strict than in other members of this family. There is but 

 one species, common to northern portions of both hemispheres, as Hawk-like in habits as 

 in mien. 



S. u'lula. (Lat. ulula, a kind of Owl, so called from its outcry; ululare, to cry out, howl, as 

 with pain or grief. As the name of an Owl, the word goes back in ornithology to Gesner, 1555, 

 and still farther to Pliny. Use as a technical name, both generic and specific, is of course very 

 recent : Strix ulula Linn. 1758, is the European Hawk Owl ; Ulula Cuv. 1817, is a genus of 

 Owls, which has been variously used. Ulula as a Latin word is obviously onomatopoetic; com- 

 pare Gr. dXaXd or dXaXij, alala or alale, an outcry, dXaXd^cu, alalazo, I cry out ; also oXoXvyij, 

 ololuge, an outcry; oXoXuywv, ololugon, the croaking of frogs; oXoXv^w, ololuzo, I call on the 

 gods ; compare also our interjection hallelujah ! which we get from the Hebrew ; Sanskrit 

 uliikas, an owl; English owl, owlet, howlet, howl, halloo, hullo, hullabaloo, etc.) European 

 Hawk Owl. Lighter in color than the American caparoch next described ; the white mark- 

 ings more prominent on the crown, cervix and scapulars ; lighter brown, narrower bars on the 

 under parts; dark markings of the disc rather brown than blackish. Size the same. N. Eu- 

 rope and Asia; similar specimens from St. Michael's, Alaska. (^S. funerea ulula of 2d-4th 

 eds. of the Key: see next article.) 



S. u. cap'aroch. The word caparoch, ajiplied to the American Hawk Owl, as Strix caparoch, 

 by P. L. S. Ml'ller, in his Suppl. to Lixn. Syst. Nat. 177G, p. 09 (after Bodd, Kortb. 1772, 

 p. 112), is the same as caparacoch or coparacoch, given in Brisson, Orn. 1700, 1, p. 520, as the 

 name applied by the natives of Hudson's Bay to this very bird, the Strix Freti Hudsonis of 

 Brisson (the Little Hawk Owl of Edwards, ii, pi. 62), and also the Strix canadensis 

 Briss. i, p. 518, pi. 37, fig. 2; which latter is one of the two bases of Strix funerea Linn. 

 S. N. I. ed. 12, 1766, p. 133, No. 11. Our bird has commonly been called Surnia funerea (Linn. 

 1760), as in the 2d-4th eds. of the Key, 1884-90, p. 511 ; but unluckily Linnaeus mixed it up 

 with the European one, which he had called Strix funerea in his Fn. Suec. 2d ed. 1761, p. 75; 

 and furthermore, his S. funerea of the 10th ed. 1758, p. 93, No. 7, is based solely on the Eu- 

 ropean bird (Fn. Suec. 1st ed. 1746, p. 51). Thus it appears that ulula Linn. 1758 and 1766, 

 belonging exclusively to the European form ; funerea Linn. 1758, exclusively European ; and 

 funerea Linn. 1766, European and American, ai'e none of them available for our bird : and 



