294 Mr. F. E. Beddard on Photodilus badius. 



ticularly whether he found these feathers in Photodilus ; I 

 did not myself succeed in finding them, though I made a 

 careful search. This is a point of difference worth noting 

 between the two genera, and it will be observed that in this 

 respect Photodilus differs from Strix and agrees with other 

 Owls. 



The rectrices are 12, the remiges 21 in number. 



Mr. Sharpe has observed another character which dis- 

 tinguishes Photodilus from Strix*, and allies it with the 

 Bubonine Owls (Syrnium, &c.) ; and I can quite confirm 

 his statement, from an examination of my specimen, that 

 the serration of the middle toe, which is to be found in 

 Strix,. is absent in Photodilus. The claw is, however, pro- 

 duced laterally into a knife-edge, as in other Owls. 



External characters are therefore rather against the close 

 association of Photodilus and Strix. Nevertheless, Dr. Coues, 

 in his work on North- American Birds t, still retains the older 

 view; he associates together Photodilus and Strix (called 

 Aluco), mainly on account of external characters [not ptery- 

 losis), but also on account of the anchylosis of the furcula 

 with the sternum %. He particularly mentions that in both 

 genera "the inner edge of middle claw is serrate or jagged, 

 simulating the pectination seen in Caprimulgidae, to which 

 birds these Owls are curiously related through Steatornis." 

 In the paper just mentioned above, Mr. Sharpe pointed out 

 that Heliodilus and not Photodilus is the genus which in this 

 particular is akin to Strix. I have examined an example of 

 Strix in which the jagged edge of the toe in question was 

 very inconspicuous, and the question arises whether it does 

 not occasionally disappear altogether. 



Osteology. 

 Skull. — The skull (fig. 1, p. 295) is less completely Bubo- 

 nine than I had at first thought it. 



* A note on Heliodilus soumagnii, Grandidier, P. Z. S. 1879, p. 175. 



t * Key to North-American Birds,' 2nd ed. 1884, p. 500. 



\ There is not really this anchylosis ; hut an appearance of such is 

 caused hy the strong ligaments, which tie down the ends of the two 

 (separate) clavicles to the anterior end of the carina sterni. 



