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60 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
Famity STRIGIDA. Tue Owts. 
Form usually short and heavy, with the head disproportionately large, and fre- 
quently furnished with erectile tufts of feathers, resembling the ears of quadrupeds. 
General organization adapted to vigorous and noiseless, but not rapid, flight, and to 
the capture of animals in the morning and evening twilight. 
Eyes usually very large, directed forwards, and, in the greater number of species, 
formed for seeing by twilight or in the night; bill rather strong, curved, nearly 
concealed by projecting, bristle-like feathers; wings generally long, outer edges of 
primary quills fringed; legs generally rather short, and in all species, except in one 
Asiatie genus (Ketupa), more or less feathered, generally densely; cavity of the ear 
very large; face encircled by a more or less perfect disc of short, rigid feathers, 
which, with the large eyes, gives to those birds an entirely peculiar and frequently 
catlike expression. Female larger than the male. 
Sub-Family Busonin%.—The Horned Ouwls. 
Head large, with erectile and prominent ear-tufts; eyes large; facial disc not 
complete above the eyes and bill; legs, feet, and claws usually very strong. 
BUBO, Cuvier. 
Bubo, Cuvier, Régne Animal, I. 331 (1817). 
Size large; general form very robust and powerful; head large, with conspicuous 
ear-tufts; eyes very large; wings long; tail short; legs and toes very strong, densely 
feathered; claws very strong; bill rather short, strong, curved, covered at base by 
projecting feathers. 
This genus includes the large Horned Owls, or Cat Owls, as they are sometimes 
called. These birds are most numerous in Asia and Africa, and there are in all 
countries about fifteen species. 
BUBO VIRGINIANUS. — Bonaparte. 
The Great Horned Owl. 
Strix Virginiana, Gm. Syst. Nat., I. 287 (1788). Bonap. Syn., p. 87. Nutt., I. 
124. Wilson, Audubon, and others. 
Bubo articus, Swains. Faun. Bor. Am. Birds, p. 86 (1831). 
DESCRIPTION. ; 
Adult. — Large and strongly organized; ear-tufts large, erectile; bill strong, 
fully curved; wing rather long; third quill usually longest; tail short; legs and 
toes robust, and densely covered with short, downy feathers; claws very strong, 
sharp, curved; variable in plumage, from nearly white to dark-brown, usually 
with the upper parts dark-brown, every feather mottled, and with irregular trans- 
verse lines of pale-ashy and reddish-fulvous, the latter being the color of all the 
plumage at the bases of the feathers; ear-tufts dark-brown, nearly black, edged on 
