FAMILY N O C T U R N A. NOCTURNAL. 



61 



The Kite. 



feather ; but as the bird's age advances, the plumage assumes an uniform 

 brown ash colour, and the head and neck become pale, and incline to white. 

 It is found in many parts of Europe and America ; not unfrequently in 

 England, commonly Jiving either by the sea-shore or in the neighbourhood 

 of large lakes, where it feeds mostly on fish. 



4. Kites. Tarsi short ; toes and claws weak, as is also the beak ; wings 

 very long ; tail forked. The great length of their wings, and their forked 

 tail, easily distinguish the Kites from 



the other subgenera; their flight is 

 easy and graceful, and, owing to the 

 forked tail, they are enabled to form 

 sudden and rapid turns in the air, 

 which is requisite, as they prey upon 

 insects and small birds, which fly 

 very quickly, although but for a short 

 distance. 



The Kite is very common in England ; it flies high and very mpidly, 

 but can see its prey from a great elevation, and drops upon it with much 

 velocity ; it feeds on small birds and other small animals, and so many 

 as twenty Moles have been taken out of one nest. 



5. Cymindis. This subgenus, as at present formed, seems to comprise 

 individuals which differ very much from each other, but taken together, 

 form a connection between the Hawks and the Buzzards, more particularly 

 resembling the latter in the form of their feet. 



6. Buzzards. These are divided into Buzzards with short tarsi, True 

 Buzzards, and Honey Buzzards. Their general characteristics are beak 

 curved suddenly from the base ; upper mandible not toothed ; wings short, 

 the third or fourth remiges the longest ; tail even. 



7. Caracaras. Ophthalmic region, throat, and crop more or less un- 

 feathered; in some hairy and in others quite bare. The propriety of 

 placing the Caracaras in the genus Falco has been doubted, on account of 

 the naked parts about the head, which rather assimilate them to the 

 Vultures, among which they have been ranged by Vieillot; butTemminck 

 and Cuvier think them best placed among the Falcons. 



GYPOGERANUS Secretary Bird (G. Capensis). In size the Secretary 

 Bird equals the Stork ; it has the root of the beak and the ocular region 

 covered with a bare orange-coloured skin ; the gape wide, and the back of 

 the head ornamented with a tuft of ten pendent feathers, which, having 

 been supposed to bear a resemblance to a pen stuck behind the ear of a 

 clerk, have given rise to its name Secretary Bird. The general colour of 

 the bird is greyish. It is found in the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, where it builds its eyry on the top of a high thicket, lining it with 

 wool and feathers ; but towards Terra del Natal, where it is also found, it 

 builds in high trees. Its food consists principally of reptiles, which it 

 destroys by a stroke of its wings. 



Family NOCTURNAL ; Nockurna. 



Unlike the Diurnal Family, these Birds are not endowed with the power 

 of strong flight. In seeking their prey by night they make no noise with 

 their feeble and downy wings : they have large heads, and their eyes, 

 which are large, and otherwise adapted for their nocturnal habits, are di- 

 rected forwards. If attacked by day, they are unable to defend themselves. 



ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES. 



PLATE 3. 

 Genus. Species. Common Name. 



Strut 



INyctea - - - - Snowy Harfang, or Owl. 



Aluco - - - - Brown Owl. 



Flammea - - - White Owl. 



Otus ----- Long-eared Owl. 



CHARACTERS OF THE GENUS. 



STRIX. Head large, fully feathered; face more or less flat, and sur- 

 rounded with a more or less perfect ruff or disc, of small close-set feathers ; 



eyes very large, furnished with nictitating membranes, and contained in 

 very wide orbits; hides brilliant, beak compressed and curved from its 

 base ; nostrils lateral, round, or oblique ; wings rather pointed, varying in 

 length, but never exceeding the tail ; legs generally feathered to the claws ; 

 tail of moderate length and square ; three toes in front and one behind, 

 completely divided, the outer one reversible ; claws powerful and retractile ; 

 plumage soft and downy. 



NOCTURNA. DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIES. 



The general appearance of the birds forming this genus is so marked, 

 that, as has been well observed by the editor of the second volume of the 

 " Fauna Boreali-Americana," " there is, as we believe, no one species yet 

 discovered, which even a common observer would not immediately pro- 

 nounce to be an Owl." They occupy an intermediate station between the 

 Falcons, which, together with themselves, form the Accipitrine order, and 

 with the Goatsuckers among Passerine birds. 



The greater number of Owls are nocturnal or crepuscular, and are well 

 fitted for this kind of life by the enormous size of their pupils, which 

 enables them to see better during the duskiness of night, but in daytime 

 admits so much light into the eye as to render them almost blind. Some, 

 however, are not only able to bear daylight, but are even capable of 

 encountering the glare of the sun, and to hunt in daytime with the keen- 

 ness of Hawks; in such the irides are always bright yellow, whilst in 

 those which are nocturnal they are brown. They feed on living prey, 

 beetles, reptiles, small birds, and mice ; and some of the larger and more 

 powerful do not hesitate to get hold of turkeys, grouse, rabbits, and hares, 

 and even fishes ; but they never feed upon carrion except in extreme diffi- 

 culty, when nothing else can be procured. They build in holes of walls 

 or trees, and lay from two to four eggs ; these when hatched present young 

 covered with a downy coat, which do not leave the nest till they are com- 

 petent to provide for themselves. They moult but once. 



This genus is divided into Earless and Eared Owls. 



.FYrsJ. EARLESS OWLS. Characterised by their rounded heads without 

 aigrettes, and by their broad face. These are separated into two sections, 

 dependent on the length of the tail ; then* habits also are distinct. 



1. Accipitrine or Hawk- Owls. 



Species the Snowy Owl (S. Nyctea). Head small, beak black, and 

 entirely hidden by the bristly feathers at its base ; plumage snowy-white, 

 but more or less marked with brown spots or bars. According to Richard- 

 son it builds its nest upon the ground, and lays three or four white eggs, 

 two only of which are hatched. It is very common in the more northern 

 regions of both hemispheres. It feeds upon hares, rabbits, rats, lemmings, 

 which it strikes down with its foot, also upon grouse, especially the 

 ptarmigan. It flies swiftly, and its colour is well suited for concealment 

 in passing over the snowy regions. Its note is very hideous, resembling 

 the cries of a person in deep distress. (Plate 3.) 



The Ural Owl (S. Uralensis) is nearly two feet in length ; the tail very 

 wedge-shaped ; head very large ; face wide, very fully feathered, and of a 

 whitish-grey, encircled with a broad band of white feathers, spotted with 

 black. In the young the ground colour of the plumage is pale greyish- 

 brown. It feeds upon mice, and small birds, and also seizes hares and 

 rabbits. It makes its nest in the hollows of trees and in the clefts of 

 rocks, and lays three or four pure white eggs. 



The Little Hawk Owl (S. Funerea) varies from fourteen to eighteen 

 inches in length. It inhabits the Arctic circle both in the new and old 

 world, whence it occasionally descends southward, when compelled by 

 severity of weather and want of food. 



The Fdconine Owl (S. Choucou) having folded wings reaching to the 

 middle of the tail, which is wedge-shaped, is found at the Cape of Good 

 Hope. Its flight is very swift. 



The Variegated Owl (S. Nisuella) is about fourteen inches long ; general 

 colour of the plumage brown, varied with ferruginous-white and black 

 in irregular zones. Is found at the Cape of Good Hope. 



