HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



substitute mere description. In fact, the 

 colours of a bird, which is all we know of 

 them, would afford a reader but small enter- 

 tainment in the enumeration. Nothing can 

 be more easy than to fill volumes with the 

 different shades of a bird's plumage ; but 

 these accounts are written with more pleasure 

 than they are read ; and a single glance of a 

 good plate or a picture imprints a juster idea 

 than a volume could convey. 1 



CHAP. VII. 



OF RAPACIOUS BIRDS OF THE OWL KIND, 

 THAT PREY BY NIGHT. 



HITHERTO we have been describing a tribe 

 of animals who, though plunderers among 

 their fellows of the air, yet wage war boldly 

 in the face of day. We now come to a race 

 equally cruel and rapacious ; but who add to 

 their savage disposition, the further reproach 

 of treachery, and carry on all their depreda- 

 tions by night. 



All birds of the owl kind may be con- 

 sidered as nocturnal robbers, who, unfitted for 

 taking their prey while it is light, surprise it 

 at those hours of rest, when the tribes of nature 

 are in the least expectation of an enemy. 

 Thus there seems no link in Nature's chain 

 broken : no where a dead inactive repose : but 

 every place, every season, every hour of the 

 day and night, is bustling with life, and fur- 

 nishing instances of industry, self-defence, and 

 invasion. 2 



1 The great butcher-bird of America is said to stick 

 grasshoppers upon sharp thorns for the purpose, as is 

 supposed, of tempting the smaller birds into a situation 

 where it can easily dart out upon them and seize them. 



2 The eye and ear of the owl are both admirably 

 adapted to its mode of life; in the former the pupil 

 being capable of great dilatation, and formed, by its 

 particular prominence, for collecting the horizontal and 



'dim rays of twilight; and being also furnished with a 

 strong nictitating membrane, that serves, upon occasion, 

 to defend it from the glare of day, at the same time that 

 it allows the bird to see with sufficient distinctness for 

 avoiding any sudden danger or surprise. The external 

 orifices of the ears are very large and complex, gener- 

 ally furnished with a valve, and situated immediately 

 behind the eyes. In conseque'nce of this formation and 

 disposition, they are alive to the slightest noise, and 

 not even the rustling of a mouse can escape their notice. 

 The flight of the owl, when disturbed during the day, 

 is abrupt and unsteady, but, at night, it skims along in 

 search of its prey with great facility ; the delicate and 

 downy texture of its plumage, producing the peculiar 

 buoyancy which must have been generally remarked in 

 the flight of these birds. 



The genus is usually divided into two sections; 

 horned or eared owls, such as have a tuft of elongated 

 feathers on each side of the forehead, and smooth headed 

 owls, or those destitute of the lengthened feathers. This 

 second section has been subdivided by some authors into 



All birds of the owl kind have one corn- 

 mon mark by which they are distinguished 

 from others ; their eyes are formed for seeing 

 better in the dusk than in the broad glare of 



a third, called accipitrine ; but as the gradation from 

 one to another is almost imperceptible, and the charac- 

 ters upon which they have attempted to establish this 

 subdivision are far from being distinct, it is quite suffi- 

 cient for the general purposes of science to adhere to the 

 two-fold division. 



The British Fauna enumerates four species in each 

 section, of which two in the eared owls, and three in 

 the smooth-headed, are indigenous ; the others are but 

 occasional visitants. 



Horned Owls. 



Great-homed or Eagle Owl, 

 Long-eared Owl, 

 Short-eared Owl, 

 Little-horned Owl, 



Snowy Owl, 

 Barn Owl, 

 Tawny Owl, 

 Little Owl, 



Strix Bubo. 

 S Otus 

 S. Brachyotot. 

 S. Scops. 



Smooth-headed Owls. 



Strfx Nyctea. 

 S. Flammea. 

 S. Stridula. 

 S. Passerina. 



Great-horned, or Eagle Owl. This species, which is 

 equal in size to some of the largest eagles, is of very 

 rare occurrence in Great Britain; and, in the few in- 







stances on record, the birds can only be regarded as 

 wanderers, or compelled by tempest to cross the North- 

 ern ocean. It preys upon fauns, rabbits, the different 

 species of grouse, rats, &c. It builds amid rocks, or on 

 lofty trees, and lays two or three eggs, larger than those 

 of a hen, round at each end, and of a bluish-white col- 

 our. According to Temminck, it is common in Rus- 

 sia, Hungary, Germany, and Switzerland. It is also a 

 native of Africa, and the northern parts of the new 

 world. 



Long-eared Owl The excellent mixture of colours 



in this bird, and the imposing appearance of its long 

 tufts or ears, render it one of the most interesting of its 

 genus. Though not so numerous as the barn, or the 



