BARN-OWL 



401 



pecting prey. The usual brown or tawny colouring of the plumage, 

 delicate!)' stippled in some instances with fine hair-like markings, is 

 probably another adaptation to nocturnal habits. 



Owls agree with the diurnal birds-of-prey in the presence of the 

 hind-toe and of elev-en primary quills to the wing, as well as in the 

 clearly defined spinal feather-tract on the neck, and in the palate being 

 of the closed or bridged t\'pe. From the more typical members of 

 the Accipitres (but not froni the American condors) they differ in having 

 the oil-gland naked, 

 as also in the absence 

 of down and of after- 

 shafts to the feathers 

 (these being wanting, 

 however, in the osprey 

 as well as in the 

 condors). Another 

 feature by which owls 

 are distinguishable 

 from the Old World 

 diurnal birds-of-prey 

 is the presence of a 

 pair of flat surfaces on 

 the basal rod of the 

 skull for the articula- 

 tion of the movable 

 bones of the palate, 

 but since these sur- 

 faces are present in 

 the American con- 

 dors, it is obvious 



that this character, like those first mentioned, cannot be regarded as of 

 any great importance. In the structure and relations of the muscles 

 and tendons of the feet, as well as in the arrangement of the arteries of 

 the neck, and in the presence of two blind appendages to the intestine, 

 owls are like the falcons and eagles, although the structure of these 

 appendages comes close to that obtaining in the goatsuckers. More- 

 over, owls lack a certain muscle in the leg — the ambiens — which is 

 developed in the falcon tribe. 



In laying pure white eggs — which are very short in proportion to 

 their breadth, and are usually deposited in holes in trees — owls differ 

 niarkedl}- from the diurnal birds-of-prey ; but here, at any rate, we 



2 D 



MOUNTED \ THE RO/.LAND 



BARN-OWL, 



