OWL 671 



last one species, G. cunicularia, with many of the habits of a 

 WHEATEAR, bores a hole from 3 to 6 feet long in a bank or the 

 side of a biscacha's burrow, placing its nest at the end; but 

 Geobates, which is peculiar to the grassy plains (campos) of South- 

 eastern Brazil, has much the habits of a LARK or PIPIT, together 

 with the elongated cubital feathers characteristic of those forms, 

 while another, Upucerthia, inhabits the most sterile of the upland 

 deserts. None of these birds is of any particular beauty, but to 

 the ornithologist they form a most interesting group, the position 

 of which was for a long while wholly mistaken, and it was only 

 when their anatomical structure came to be known that their place 

 was determined among the TRACHEOPHON^E. 



OWL, the Anglo-Saxon Ule, Swedish Uggla, and German Eule 

 all allied to the Latin Ulula, and evidently of imitative origin the 

 general English name for every nocturnal Bird-of-Prey, 1 of which 

 group nearly two hundred species have been recognized. The Owls 

 form a very natural assemblage, and one about the limits of which 

 no doubt has for a long while existed. Placed by nearly all 

 systematists for many years as a Family of the Order Accipitres (or 

 whatever may have been the equivalent term used by the particular 

 taxonomer), there has been of late a disposition to regard them as 

 forming a group of higher rank. On many accounts it is plain that 

 they differ from the ordinary diurnal Birds-of-Prey, more than the 

 latter do among themselves ; and, though in some respects Owls 

 have a superficial likeness to the NIGHTJARS, 2 and a resemblance 

 more deeply seated to the GUACHARO, even the last has not been 

 made out to have any strong affinity to them. A good deal is 

 therefore to be said for the opinion which would rank the Owls as 

 an independent Order, or at any rate Suborder, Striges. Whatever 

 be the position assigned to the group, its subdivision has always 

 been a fruitful matter of discussion, owing to the great resemblance 

 obtaining among all its members, and the existence of safe characters 

 for its division has only lately been at all generally recognized. 

 By the older naturalists, it is true, Owls were divided, as was first 



1 The poverty of the English language generally so rich in synonyms is here 

 very remarkable. Though four well-known if not common species of Owls are 

 native to Britain, to say nothing of half a dozen others which occur with greater 

 or less frequency, none of them has ever acquired an absolutely individual name, 

 and various prefixes have to be used to distinguish them. It is almost the same 

 in other countries where English is spoken, though North America has its 

 "Saw- whet" and New Zealand its "Morepork" each name from the bird's 

 call-note. In Greece and Italy, Germany and France, almost each indigenous 

 species has had its own particular designation in the vulgar tongue. The English 

 Owlet or Howlet is of course a simple diminutive only. 



2 In many parts of England the Nightjar is known as the Churn-Owl or 

 Fern-Owl. 



