1837.] On some new Genera of Raptores. 365 



Baza. Ninox. 



Total length, ... 1 fl| 1 o£ 



Length of bill, straight, to gape, ... ... 0| 0§ 



Basal height of bill, extreme, *... .. ... Of 0| 



Basal width of bill, extreme, ... ... ... 0|| 0| 



Head straight, from gape to occiput, ... ... \\ 1| 



Length of tail, ... ... ... ... 6 6 



Tarsus, from inner salient angle above, to the sole, \\ l| 



Length of central digit, from extreme base to supe- \ n -,_i , s 



rior insertion of the talon, ... ... ... J ^ is 



Length of exterior digit, ... ... ... 0j| Off 



Length of interior digit, ... ... ... less J | Q\% 



Length of hind digit, ... 0,% 0| 



Straight length of central talon, ... 0, 8 5 OOJ? 



Ditto ditto exterior ditto, Y % 0,% 



Ditto ditto interior ditto, ... O^g 0}§ 



Ditto ditto hind ditto, 0, 9 g T ' 3 



Expanse of wings, ... ... 2 5| 2 4| 



Length of a closed wing, .. ... ... 9| ° 9 | 



Longer diameter of opening of ear, ... ... ; 3 , 0- 3 s 



Diameter of the eye, ... ... f 6 s T 8 ? 



Weight of the birds, ... ... ... ... 7| oz. 7^ oz. 



To render this singular parallelism complete, I may add, that both 

 birds are mature males of their respective species ; that the females are 

 scarcely larger and not at all different in aspect ; that both are emi- 

 nently conspicuous for the insessorial character of their feet, the digits 

 of which are cleft to their origins, the soles quite flat and somewhat 

 bordered ; the anterior laterals of equal strength and size, and the 

 central of the same thickness, and of very moderate excess of length. 

 Wings and tail could not, in a Strigine bird, be more Falponine than 

 those of Ninox ; and hence these organs are almost precisely similar, 

 both in form and proportion, to the same organs in Baza, which, 

 though a Falconine bird, deviates widely from the restricted or generic 

 type*. Upon the whole, the only material differences of these birds 

 are the inferior strength of the thumb with its talon, and the superior 

 size of the eye, in Ninox — both differences eminently interesting, in as 

 much as none are more universally and distinctly referable to the 

 respective habits and exigencies of the two families of the nocturnal 

 and diurnal Raptores. 



* Peregrinus, Icelandicus, &c. I exclude Tinnunculus, &c, under the separate 

 sub-generic title of Falcula. 



3 B 



