462 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
whom no one in this country is better qualified to express an 
opinion on the subject, we need do no more than recommend 
to our readers a careful perusal of Dr. Shufeldt’s paper. 
In his treatment of the Owls, we observe that Mr. Saunders 
has not invariably adopted the views of Prof. Newton, as set 
forth in the first volume of the 4th edition of Yarrell’s ‘ British 
Birds’; but, although we are glad to see our old friend the 
Barn Owl re-appearing under the time-honoured name of Strix 
flammea, we still think that the Owls, as a family, have been 
separated into too many genera. The Tawny Owl, Tengmalm’s 
Owl, and the Little Owl might well be placed in one and the 
same genus, the points of difference as detailed in the diagnoses 
of the genera Syrnium, Nyctala, and Athene being so slight as 
hardly, in our opinion, to warrant generic separation. They all 
have the head large, round, and without ear-tufts, bill decurved 
from the base, cere small, ears large, wings full and rounded, 
legs and toes feathered. Wherein, then, lies the alleged generic 
distinction? In Syrniwm the tail, in proportion to the closed 
wings, is long; in Nyctala short. In Athene the toes above are 
clothed with soft bristles instead of feathers, as in Nyctala. 
But, to parody Burns, ‘ An owl’s an owl for a’ that.” 
Similarly fine distinctions are drawn between allied genera 
in other orders of birds, as, for example, between Aigialitis and 
Eudromias, and between Anas, Dajfila, and Mareca. True, these 
distinctions are not of our author’s making, but only of his 
adoption: the question is whether he would not have acted 
wisely in discarding some of them as unnecessary, and thus 
have simplified his classification. 
Considering that the limits of the work did not admit of 
more than two pages of letterpress being devoted to each species, 
it would be difficult to give a better condensation of facts in 
fewer lines than has been contrived by Mr. Saunders; but 
inasmuch as the object of his ‘Manual’ is to give an account 
of birds in, not out of, the British Islands, it may be said that 
the paragraphs relating to the geographical distribution of 
species abroad might have been usefully replaced by further and 
fuller information than is here given as to haunts, habits, food, 
nesting, &c., as observed by British ornithologists. This remark 
applies especially to such species as Savi’s Warbler, the Bearded 
Titmouse, Kite, Honey Buzzard, Bustard, Bittern, Dotterel, 
