58 STRIGIXjE. 



the secondary quills and tail ash-grey have not hitherto been 

 observed in Britain. 



Male, 21^, . ., 16/ 5 , 1 T V, 3 T 5 , 1-fr, 1. Female, 24, 52. 



Very rare in Scotland, but not uncommon in some parts of 

 England. According to Montagu the nest is most frequently 

 made on the ground, but sometimes in the fork of a large tree; 

 the eggs white. The ruff is less conspicuous in this species, 

 for which reason some have instituted a distinct genus for its 

 reception. It flies low, and feeds on waterfowl, especially 

 young ducks, water-rats, frogs, lizards, fish, and insects. 



Moor Harrier. Moor Buzzard. Harpy. Duck Hawk. 



Falco seruginosus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 130. Falco rufus, 

 Temm. Man. d'Ornith. i. 69. Circus Eeruginosus, Marsh 

 Harrier, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, iii. 382. 



FAMILY III. STRIGIN.E. STRIGINE BIRDS, 

 OR OWLS. 



The Striginse, which are separated from the Falconi- 

 nse by a rather wide interval, are distinguished by their 

 extremely large head, and especially the direction of their 

 generally enormous eyes, which, in place of being lateral, 

 are either anterior, or oblique. Bill short, generally 

 stout, cerate, wide at the base, compressed toward the 

 end ; upper mandible with its dorsal line declinate and 

 decurved, its edges destitute of prominent lobe, the tip 

 prolonged, decurved, acute ; lower mandible with the 

 angle wide ; the edges decurved with a shallow sinus 

 close to the rounded tip. Tongue small, fleshy, deeply 

 emarginate, and papillate at the base, channelled above, 

 horny beneath, with the tip narrowed and emarginate or 

 bifid ; oesophagus very wide, of nearly equal diameter 

 throughout, being destitute of crop ; proventriculus wide ; 

 stomach large, roundish, with the muscular coat very 

 thin, and composed of a single series of fasciculi, the 

 epithelium soft or somewhat hard, smooth or rugous ; in- 

 testine short ; coeca large, oblong, narrowed at the base ; 

 cloaca large and globular. Trachea short, wide, of thin and 

 slender rings; inferior larynx with a single pair of muscles, 



