106 STRIGID.E. 



a very sharp and lengthened tip, but without any tooth 

 or indentation ; both mandibles are very moveable : the 

 base and cere are covered with stiff bristling feathers : the 

 nostrils are round and placed on the edge of the cere. The 

 eyes are very large, and surrounded by a disk of stiffened 

 feathers, which are mostly directed forwards, and calculated 

 eminently to protect the large and tender visual orbs from 

 the influence of wind and light : when the eyes are closed, 

 these radiating feathers are often drawn together so as to 

 conceal the eyelids. The ears are very large, and defended 

 by feathers of a peculiar construction. The legs are, in 

 most species, closely feathered, the toes rather short, and 

 the outer one reversible : the claws are long, thin, but slight- 

 ly arched and very sharp. The head, in most of the species, 

 appears very large, but this appearance of size is deceptive, 

 and caused by the position of the feathers, which chiefly 

 stand up at right angles, the head itself when grasped in 

 the hand appearing to have shrunk away at the touch. A 

 border of rounded, shell-like feathers surrounds the face ; this 

 border is sometimes expanded into a circle, sometimes con- 

 tracted into a triangular form, with one of its corners pointing 

 downwards. The extreme susceptibility of the eyes may 

 be observed in the contraction and dilatation of the pupil with 

 every inspiration of the breath. The wings are of consider- 

 able length and breadth, the larger quills very broad, and 

 usually rounded at the tips, with the shafts bent. The tail 

 feathers in most species have the shafts bent backwards, 

 which occasions the tail to hang perpendicularly down when 

 the bird is at rest. The feathers on all the other parts are 

 mostly large, soft, and elastic, and almost invariably projecting 

 loosely from the body. 



The greater number of the species of this genus are, as 

 before observed, nocturnal or crepuscular in their habits, 

 going out to feed when other birds of prey retire to rest. 



