182 STRIGES. 



Order RAPTORES. 



The E-aptores possess four characters which are not known to be 

 combined in any other birds. 



Young born helpless ; young passing through a complete downy 

 stage; hallux present, and connected -with the flexor lonffus hallucis 

 (not with the flexor perforans digitorum) ; spinal feather-tract well 

 defined on the neck. 



The Order Raptores contains three Suborders. 



Suborder XV. STRIGES. 



Young born helpless, but completely covered with down ; oil-gland 

 present, but nude; spinal feather-tract well defined on the neck. 



The following alternative diagnoses are supposed to be equally 

 exclusive : — 



Basal phalanx of the third digit shortened almost to a cube ; ba,si- 

 pterygoid processes present. 



Ambiens, accessory femoro-caudal, semitendinosus, and accessory 

 semitendinosus muscles absent ; basipterygoid processes present. 



The distribution of the Owls is almost cosmopolitan. The number 

 of species known is about 200. 



There are eleven species of Owls which have been found in the 

 Japanese Empire. Of these three belong to the genus StrioHjVa. 

 which the ear-conch is very large and protected by an operculum. 

 One has been placed in the genus Ninox (scarcely separable from 

 Noctua), in which the nostrils are placed in a projection formed by 

 an inflation of the cere. Of the remaining seven, one belongs to 

 the genus Surnia, which possesses neither of the characters already 

 named, but has white or transversely barred underparts, longitudinal 

 streaks on the underparts, and ear-tufts obsolete or nearly so. The 

 remaining six have very conspicuous ear-tufts, and the broad longi- 

 tudinal streaks on the underparts are more conspicuous than the 

 narrow transverse bars. Two of them belong to the genus Bubo, 

 which contains the large species (wing from carpal joint never less 

 than 12 inches) ; and the remaining four to the genus Scops, which 



