OF ORNITHOLOGY 83 



pairs, two anterior and two posterior, the " fourth toe " being 

 reversed (zygodactyle), as in the Woodpeckers and the Cuckoos, 

 and few if any other birds, we can determine the specimens 

 referable to this family with absolute accuracy. The general 

 form of the Parrot is a familiar one. That parrots should be 

 so rare now in North America, when formerly so abundant at 

 least in the Southern United States, is remarkable. The or- 

 der has anatomical peculiarities, also, which are fully as re- 

 markable as their general appearance. It is one upon which 

 a great deal of time may be satisfactorily used in study. We 

 have two genera : 



Ctenera Rhynchopsitta, The Thick-billed Parrot. 



Conurus, The Carolina Parakeet and ally. 



The above two genera and three species, owing to the paucity of forms in 

 this order, are included here, - — one genera and two species occur South 

 ■of the limits of the United States proper. Conurus carolinensis, The 

 Carolina Parakeet, alone represents the species common north of Mexico. 



FAMILY XXVIII ALUCONIDAE THE BARN 



OWLS 



"Italian alocho, some kind of owl," probably akin to Latin alucinor. 



Strange as the arrangement may appear, at least to the un- 

 initiated, we find that the majority of writers of to-day agree, 

 almost unanimously, in separating this curious Owl-anomaly 

 from the great mass of Nocternal Birds of Prey by a 

 separate and distinct family. Writers have for a long while 

 been aware that its peculiarities showed it to be different from 

 the other Strigides. Until recently writers were in the habit 

 of placing it last instead of first on the owl list. Its present 

 place is not, as might at first seem to appear, from any desire 

 to place all the owl species in a reverse order from the usual 

 one. This new position results more from the fact that this 

 species is more typical of the Universal Order of Strigides, 

 perhaps, than any other of our North American species. Be 

 this as it may, the general position as first seems now almost 

 universally acknowledged. The single family, genera, and 

 species, referring directly to our common American Barn Owl, 

 is instantly recognizable. 



