Notes on Crested Birds of Prey. 203 



remarks that follow, it will therefore be as well to distinguish 

 these types by employing terms for them which shall refer 

 to the place of insertion of the feathers in question. In 

 every case the remarks that follow refer to the characteristics 

 presented by living birds, and not by cabinet specimens, as 

 observations upon stuffed examples are simply worthless in 

 the present connection. 



Nearly all Birds of Prey are able to raise the feathers 

 on the occiput, and on the nape, more or less; in some 

 even of those that have no claim to be regarded as crested, 

 in the ordinary sense, both the occijntal and the nuchal 

 feathers can be raised into more or less of a crown or frill. 

 In many others, also, the ear coverts, tlie 2Jost-aAC7'iciUar 

 fringes, and the mandibular tufts are capable of being raised 

 so as to stand out from the head more or less. But in certain 

 other forms development has gone much farther. In one of 

 the principal sections of the Owls (PL X., Pig. 1) there is the 

 pair of superciliary tufts or "horns," a style of ornament 

 almost entirely confined to this particular group, and consti- 

 tuting, in fact, almost the sole feature of the kind under 

 notice that these birds possess. In most of the Diurnal Birds 

 of Prey a slight indication of the same feature may be 

 observed in a few forms. Even in the Falcons the superci- 

 liary feathers may occasionally be seen to be raised, as a 

 kind of beading, above the general level of the other feathers 

 of the crown. I have before me as I write several drawings 

 of a living example of Falco sacer that show this feature in 

 rather a marked manner ; and I have repeatedly noticed it 

 more or less in making drawings from life of other falcons. 

 But in no case do these superciliary feathers ever become 

 elongated to very striking proportions in any of the Diurnal 

 Birds of Prey. 



In the CiRCiN.55, the piost-auricular feathers are elongated 

 more than in most others, and these when raised, form a 

 well-marked frill below and behind the eyes. In the Harpy 

 {TJirasaetus harpy ia) (PI. X., Pig. 2a), and in the Crowued 

 Hawk Eagle {Spizaetus coroncdus) (PL X., Pig. oa), the elon- 

 gation of these post-auricular tufts is carried to a much 

 greater extent ; and the birds are able, under certain emotions, 

 VOL. X. P 



