WHITE OWLS PARROTS. 



325 



These birds differ from the Bubonidce in having a pectinated claw to the 

 middle toe. The hinder margin of the sternum or breast- 

 Tie White Owls, bone is without notches, and the furcula or " merry - 

 Family Stngidos. thought" bone is joined to the keel of the sternum. 

 There is but one genus in the family, viz., Strix, of 

 which our own Barn-Owl or White Owl is the type. 



The present species is nearly world-wide in its distribution, but does not occur 

 very far to the north. The Barn-Owl appears to follow man and his civilisa- 

 tion, doubtless from the fact that where farms are 

 settled, rats and mice will follow. The number 

 of mice which a Barn-Owl will consume is really 

 wonderful, shrews and voles being also taken in 

 great numbers ; and Waterton tells us that a mouse 

 is brought to the nest every twelve or fifteen 

 minutes, while we ourselves have found more than 

 forty field-mice, freshly caught, in the nest of one 

 of these Owls. They will also catch bats in small 

 numbers, and occasionally birds form part of their 

 diet, but the principal food of the Owl consists of 

 small rodents ; and it may confidently be said that 

 the Barn-Owl is one of the farmer's best friends. 

 Dr. A. K. Fisher, in his report on the "Hawks and 

 Owls of the United States in relation to Agricul- 

 ture," says that he scarcely found anything but 

 mice in the stomachs of thirty-nine Barn-Owls he 

 examined. Four birds had been captured, as well 

 as locusts and other insects, but the staple food 

 was mice and rats. Besides the Barn-Owls, which have a mottled plumage, 

 there are a couple of brown-backed species, known as Grass Owls. One 

 inhabits Africa, and bears the name of Strix capensis, while in India and the 

 Malay countries to Australia and the Pacific Islands, a second species (S. 

 Candida) occurs. Both these birds have longer legs than the Barn-Owl, and 

 live in the open grassy country. 



We are shortly coming to the Picarian birds the Trogons, the King-fishers, 

 and such-like forms. Between them and the birds which we have hitherto 

 passed in review there would seem to be but little 

 connection, and at first sight none but the Parrots 

 afford a connecting link. They have been placed 

 in all sorts of different positions in the schemes which 

 have been propounded for the classification of birds, and 

 they have been recently pushed to the end of the series by a well-known 

 anatomist, because he did not know where else to place them. There was 

 reason in making them the head of all the birds, as was done by Blyth and 

 Bonaparte, on account of their superior intelligence, for the same reason 

 that the monkeys were placed at the head of the Mammalia, and there was 

 also sense in associating them with the climbing birds on account of their 

 zygodactyle foot, with two toes directed forwards and two backwards. They 

 have, however, certain characteristics which isolate them from the majority 

 of birds, and it requires a little consideration to determine their position in 

 the natural system. Nowhere does their place appear better in a linear 

 arrangement of birds than after the Accipitres and Striges, leading on to the 

 Picarice. Like the latter birds they nest in holes, and lay white eggs, but so 



Fig. 68. THE BARN-OWL 

 (Strix flammea). 



The Parrots. 

 Order 



Psittaciforntes. 



