162 



STRIGID.E. 



its greatest development, since the skull itself is affected 

 thereby. In the present species, as figured below, and some 

 others the anomaly, though sufficiently remarkable, is con- 

 fined to the exterior, the skull remaining symmetrical. But 

 even this curious feature has been noticed by very few writers, 

 and by none, apparently, of our own countrymen. Klein 

 in his ' Historic Avium Prodromus,' published in 1750, was 

 the first to announce it (p. 54). It was described, as it exists 

 in the Long-eared and Short-eared Owls, in the ' Memoires 

 de la Societ^ Koyale des Sciences de Liege ' (vol. i. pp. 

 121-124 pi. 3), by Professor Yan Beneden, who figured both 

 ears of the former. In 'The Zoologist' for 1845 (pp. 1019, 

 1020) M. Deby again described the structure in the latter, 

 which seems to be the first allusion to the subject in an 

 English publication. Later, Dr. Kaup mentioned the pecu- 

 liarity, as observed by him in several species, in his " Mono- 

 graph of the Owls," originally contained in the ' Contributions 

 to Ornithology ' for 1852, and reprinted, with corrections, in 

 the * Transactions of the Zoological Society' (vol. iv.), where 

 the right and left conchs of the Tawny Owl, the Little Owl 

 and that which is next to be described, are figured. 



