OWLS. 321 



Newton quotes an incident of this sport which occurred in the reign of the " British- 

 Solomon," King James, according to which it seems that the French king's falconer, 

 when sent to England to show his skill, " could not kill one kite, ours being more 

 magnanimous than the French kite." Whereupon James's master-falconer, Sir Thomas 

 Monson, at an expense of a thousand pounds, obtained a cast (couple) of hawks that 

 took nine kites in succession. But the historian goes on to say that when King 

 James himself was persuaded by this success to witness a flight in person, " the Kite 

 went to such a mountee as all the field lost sight of Kite and Hawke and all, and 

 neither Kite nor Hawke were either seen or heard of to this present." 



Owls, generally speaking (the family STRIGID^E), are the nocturnal Accipitres. 

 With all the raptorial nature of the diurnal birds of prey, they are yet very different 

 in many details of structure, a few of which have already been mentioned. The head 

 is relatively large and broad, and the eyes especially are very large, larger than in 

 any other family of birds except possibly the goatsuckers, or nightjars (Caprimulgi- 

 dae). The feathers surrounding each eye are generally of peculiar shape and texture, 

 often more or less bristly, and tend to form a more or less shallow funnel, or hollow 

 cone, at the bottom or apex of which the eye is situated. The eyes look almost 

 directly forward, and thus, with their setting of radiating feathers the facial discs 

 have a goggle-like appearance, which, though often unintentionally and grossly carica- 

 tured, is yet striking and often ludicrous. These circles of feathers about the eyes 

 are evidently adaptations to the nocturnal habits of the birds, and are best developed 

 in those species which are most strictly nocturnal, while in the few species which hunt 

 much by daylight they are quite incomplete. 



The eyes themselves are not less remarkable. In addition to their great size, they 

 are of peculiar shape, being less nearly spherical than in other birds, and with the 

 anterior portion much produced and cylindrical. They are also but very slightly 

 movable, the bony plates which are found in the sclerotic coat of the eye in all birds 

 being here most remarkably developed, and so closely fitted to each other and to the 

 orbits that there is no perceptible rolling of the eye-ball, as in other birds, the whole 

 head having to be turned instead. The iris is unusually broad, and capable of a sur- 

 prising degree of expansion and contraction, while the pupil, instead of being circu- 

 lar, as in most birds, is, when moderately contracted, a perpendicular oval. 



In many species, also, we find eyelashes, a rare thing among birds, though seen in 

 ostriches and some others. In closing the eyes, moreover, the upper lid is principally 

 effective, the reverse of what is true in most birds. The nictitating membrane, or 

 third eyelid, is not, perhaps, better developed than in other Raptores; but the large 

 size of the eye, and the fact that owls ordinarily sit during the daytime with this 

 screen drawn over it (in the manner of a sickly chicken), make it unusually noticeable. 

 There is usually a well-developed superciliary shield. 



The ear also is remarkably developed, the orifice being often of peculiar shape, 

 frequently closable by a movable flap or operculum, and ordinarily surrounded by one 

 or more circles of feathers, which probably perform to a great extent the function of 

 the external fleshy ear among mammals. The openings of these ears are often unlike 

 on the two sides of the head, in at least one genus (Asia), the orifice on one side 

 opening downward, and on the other upward. The bill is not remarkable in any 

 respect, being usually short and frequently almost hidden by the bristly feathers about 

 it, being, as it were, squeezed in between the discs which surround the eyes. It is 

 always sharp and strongly hooked, but never notched. 

 VOL. iv. 21 



