246 OTIS. 



habits of the different species, and from the few 

 collections which contain a large series of speci- 

 mens; while, in a group of birds which evidently 

 possesses a very acute sense of hearing to assist in 

 securing their sustenance, the ears must shew some 

 peculiarities of formation which, in dried or stuffed 

 skins, can scarcely be examined with satisfaction. 

 In seeking for the typical species, we must exa- 

 mine those parts of their form which are most 

 subservient to their wants as nocturnal preying 

 birds ; and it is in the organs of sight and hearing, 

 and their accessaries, where they chiefly vary from 

 their representatives of the day. The eyes, in 

 those species which appear' to have the senses of 

 hearing and seeing most developed, are large, sur- 

 rounded by a bony ring capable of expansion and 

 compression, and they are placed in a large con- 

 cave disk, like a lamp in the centre of a reflector. 

 In the day, the birds remain in a state of repose 

 in some dark retreat, and there take the rest which 

 others enjoy during the night ; but, on the ap- 

 proach of twilight, their morning, as it were, com- 

 mences, and they then display an activity which has 

 not always been reconciled with their apparently, 

 at other times, stupid appearance ; and during this 

 time, w r e have every reason to believe that, from 

 the provisions of their form, their vision is as acute 

 at a short distance, as that of the Falcons, but 

 that it is not very extended, which, indeed, from 



