THE FKRX-OWL. 63 



upon these soft-winged insects, which they catch up 

 in their flight, however dark it may he. To human 

 heings, who at dusk can scarcely trace a swift- flying 

 moth as it glances by, it is inconceivahle how this 

 bird can contrive to make its constant meals on such 

 precarious prey. Nature, however, has amply pro- 

 vided it with never-failing means of feasting to its 

 satisfaction. In the first place, the eye is large, full, 

 and clear, like the Owl's, and so thin and transparent 

 is the membrane separating it from the base of the 

 upper mandible, that as it flies, when in search of 

 food, with its mouth open, it has been surmised by 

 some naturalists that the bird is enabled thereby to 

 keep a look-out forward, as well as on either side, 

 through the thin bony membrane. At all events, 

 without this odd addition to great powers of vision, 

 a skull more than half filled up with eye-sight, must 

 enable the possessor to see more clearly in the dark 

 than we can conceive possible. But in the next place, 

 look at the mouth (see figure, p. 62 and 39), such a 

 prodigious opening as it is, with a fringe of strong 

 bristles on either side of the nostrils, the use of 

 which is this: that as it flies along, if a moth 

 crosses the pathway of these widely-opened jaws, 

 the bristles fetter the insect's wings, and help to 

 imprison it beyond the power of escape. 



This bird has moreover another peculiarity, adapted 

 for the capture of moths, namely, a kind of glutinous 

 liquid, which exudes from the upper part of the bill, 

 and is so adhesive that small insects are retained by 

 it, and it is thus enabled to imprison and swallow a 

 number of them together; and w r hat is still more 

 singular, that, although swallowed, they still con- 



