676 OWL 
quite backwards. Many forms have the legs and toes thickly 
clothed to the very claws; others have the toes, and even the tarsi, 
bare, or only sparsely beset by bristles. Among the bare-legged Owls 
those of the Indian genus Ketupa are conspicuous, and this feature is 
usually correlated with their fish-catching habits; but certainly 
other Owls that are not known to catch fish present much the same 
character. 
From the multitude of Owls there is only room here to make 
further mention of a few of the more interesting. First must be 
noticed the Tawny Owl—the Strix stridula of Linneeus, the type, as 
has been above said, of the whole group, and especially of the 
Strigine section as here understood. ‘This is the Syrnium aluco of 
many authors, the Chat-huant of the French, the species whose 
tremulous hooting “tu-whit, to-who,” has been celebrated by 
Shakespear, and, as well as the plaintive call, “keewick,” of the 
young after leaving the nest, will be familiar sounds to many readers, 
for the bird is very generally distributed throughout most parts 
of Europe, extending its range through Asia Minor to Palestine, and 
also to Barbary—but not belonging to the Ethiopian Region or to 
the eastern half of the Palearctic area. It is the largest of the 
Owls indigenous to Britain, and chiefly affects woodlands, only occa- 
sionally choosing any other place for its nest than a hollow tree. 
Its food consists almost entirely of small mammals, especially rats ; 
but, though on this account most deserving of protection from all 
classes, it is subject to the stupid persecution of the ignorant, and 
is rapidly declining in numbers.! Its nearest allies in North 
America are the S. nebulosa, with some kindred forms, one of which, 
the S. occidentalis of California and Arizona, is here figured ; but 
none of them seems to have the “merry note” that is uttered by 
the European species. Common to the most northerly forest-tracts 
of both continents (for, though a slight difference of coloration is 
observable between American examples and those from the Old 
World, it is impossible to consider it specific) is the much larger 
S. cinerea or S. lapponica, whose small eyes, with their yellow iris, 
iron-grey plumage, delicately mottled with dark brown, and the con- 
centric circles of its facial disks make it one of the most remarkable 
of the group. Then may be noticed the genus Bubo—containing 
several species which from their size are usually known as Eagle-Owls. 
Here the Nearctic and Palearctic forms are sufficiently distinct— 
1 All Owls have the habit of casting up the indigestible parts of the food 
swallowed in the form of pellets, which may often be found in abundance under 
the Owl-roost, and reveal without any manner of doubt what the prey of the bird 
has been. The result in nearly every case shews the enormous service they 
render to man in destroying rats and mice. Details of many observations to this 
effect are recorded in the Bericht iiber die XIV. Versammlung der Deutschen 
Ornithologen-Geselischaft (pp. 30-34). 
