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Genus BUBO. 



Stria; apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 131 (1766). 

 Bubo, Forster, Synopt. Cat. Brit. B. p. 3 (1817). 

 Otus apud Schlegel, Bev. Crit. p. 13 (1844). 



This group, comprising the largest and most powerful of the Horned Owls, contains seventeen 

 species, which inhabit the Palaearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, Nearctic, and Neotropical Regions, 

 one species only being found in the Western Palsearctic Region. Another species, JBtibo asca- 

 laphus, Savigny, which inhabits North Africa, may probably straggle just within the limits of 

 the Western Palaearctic Region ; but I have not deemed it advisable to include it. 



These birds, which are very powerful and rapacious, are nocturnal in their habits, but are 

 also able to fly by day without being dazed by the light when roused from their hiding-place. 

 They feed on birds of many sorts, even the larger game-birds, hares, rabbits, small mammals,, 

 and even young fawns, and are extremely destructive to game. Their note is a weird and wild 

 hoot ; and their flight, though soft and noiseless, is strong and swift. They are shy and wary, 

 usually resorting to some dark ravine or dense forest glade during the day, and hunting for their 

 prey at night. They nest in a cleft or on a ledge of a rock, or else in a tree, usually making a 

 very slight nest, but occasionally building a large bulky structure. Their eggs are large, 

 roundish, and pure white. 



Bubo ignavus, the type of the genus, has the bill moderate in size, strong, decurved from 

 the base, lower mandible notched ; nostrils rounded, placed in the anterior part of the cere ; ear- 

 conch simple, elliptical, rather small ; head furnished with two large tufts of feathers ; facial 

 disk incomplete above the eyes ; wings rather short, but broad and concave, the first quill about 

 equal to the sixth, the third or fourth longest ; tail moderately long, broad, slightly rounded ; 

 legs and toes covered with close, short feathers ; claws long, stout, curved, and tapering to an 

 acute point. 



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