59° RAPTORIAL BIRDS 
which are composed of birds that, with the exception 
of a few semi-crepuscular species, seek their prey by 
day, and are therefore called diurnal Raptores, as has 
been already mentioned. 
The plumage of the Owls is soft and downy, the 
feathers being mostly large, pliant, and elastic, their 
wings are of considerable length and breadth, the larger 
quill-feathers are very broad, and their flight is buoyant 
and remarkably noiseless, thus enabling them to steal 
unheard upon their prey during the stillness of the 
evening or morning twilight, or of the quiet moonlight 
night. 
The ears of the Owls are provided with larger 
orifices than those of the other birds, enabling them. 
to catch the rustling sound of the small nocturnal 
quadruped, passing amongst grass or over dead leaves ; 
whilst their eyes, which are large and with great power 
of dilation or contraction in the iris, are admirably 
fitted to enable them to descry their prey in the 
dusk, but are in most Owls little able to bear the 
brighter beams of daylight. 
The bill in the Owls is sharply hooked at the point 
of the upper mandible, as in the diurnal birds of prey, 
but is not, as in many of the latter, furnished with 
tooth-like notches on its cutting edges. The foot is 
furnished with sharp and curved talons, and the 
outer toe is more or less reversible. The food oj 
Owls consists of the smaller mammalia, chiefly rodents 
and bats, of birds which they mostly seize when 
