394 GREAT-HORNED OWL. 



is in the musuem of the Zoological Society of London, and is merely 

 a light coloured Strix virginiana. 



My friend Dr Bachman says, " I had a nest of young ones sent 

 me early in February (Charleston). In the State of New York I have, 

 on several occasions, procured large specimens of this Owl that were 

 very offensive with the smell of the Polecat, having evidently caught 

 and fed on that animal. The northern Hare, Lepus mrginianus, and 

 the Common Hare, L. americanus, also frequently become the prey of 

 this Owl." 



In the State of Maine it watches the traps placed along the margins 

 of streams for the purpose of catching the Musk Rat, and frequently 

 destroys the skins, on which account the hunters often bait the trap 

 with the body of a rat after being skinned, and next morning find the 

 marauder caught. The eggs measure two inches and three-eighths in 

 length, two inches in breadth, and are nearly equally rounded at both 

 ends. 



In an adult male preserved in spirits, the palate is slightly concave, 

 but at the sides inclining upwards ; the posterior aperture of the nares 

 is small, of an elliptical form, 4 twelfths long, 2 twelfths broad, with 

 an anterior slit 7 twelfths long ; the lateral space is covered with small 

 papillae; ; there is a small oblique flap from the base of the slit, and a 

 semicircular papillate flap behind the aperture of the fallopian tubes, 

 which is 2 twelfths in length. On the anterior part of the roof of the 

 mouth is a broad prominent ridge. The skin or mucous membrane, as 

 well as the bones, of the palate, are in this, as in most other Owls, thin 

 and somewhat transparent, whence originated the foolish notion of their 

 being able to direct their eyes so as to see through the open mouth. 

 The salivary crypts are very numerous and large, especially in the 

 space around and anterior to the tongue, as well as upon its upper sur- 

 face at the base. The tongue is 1 inch 1 twelfth long, very deeply 

 sagittate and papillate at the base, flattish above, with a median groove, 

 rounded and emarginate at the tip. The width of the mouth is 1 inch 

 8^ twelfths. 



The eyes are firmly fixed in their sockets, and incapable of motion, 

 as in most Owls ; their direction is at an angle of about 60°. The aper- 

 tm-e of the eyelids is 1 inch. The tufts on the head are composed 

 exactly of two series of 9 feathers, there being 18 in each tuft, the two 

 rows parallel and close together. 



