﻿BIRDS OF PREY. OWLS. 



323 



better. It may also be remarked, that in those owls 

 which are partly diurnal in their habits, the facial disk 

 is small or imperfect ; while in such as hunt during the 

 day, like the snowy owl, the disk is hardly perceptible. 

 Independent of the retractile claws which the owls 

 possess in common with the falcons, they have the 

 faculty, unpossessed by the latter, of bringing their 

 external toe either backwards or forwards, in the same 

 manner as is seen in the plantain eaters and a few of 

 the cuckows. Their enormous head and large eyes 

 give them a most grotesque appearance, particularly 

 when disturbed during the day : on such occasions they 

 bob their head up and down, and turn it about in all 

 directions, as if they were half blind, and were endea- 

 vouring to get a clear sight of the object which annoyed 

 them. We have frequently endeavoured to rear and 

 tame young owls from the nest, but no efforts to ac- 

 complish the latter object were ever successful. One of 

 the typical groups has the head ornamented with tufts 

 of feathers, longer than the others, and which are placed 

 above the ears. These egrets have been improperly 

 termed horns — a term, no doubt, originating in their 

 analogy to those processes in quadrupeds. The use, 

 how r ever, of these singular appendages is totally un- 

 known. Owls, no less than hawks, are feared and 

 hated by all the smaller birds, who shun the latter, but 

 fear not to attack the former during the day when their 

 retreat is discovered, as if conscious they can do so with 

 impunity. 



(259.) The natural arrangement of this group has 

 been attempted by several of our best writers ; but the 

 task, difficult in itself, has been rendered still more so 

 by the manner in which it has been conducted. When 

 so much stress has been laid, in the Regne Animal, 

 upon the importance of making anatomical organisation 

 the basis of systematic divisions, we are led, from the 

 high reputation of the author, to place implicit con- 

 fidence, if not in the mode in which he combines his 

 facts, at least in the facts themselves, more especially 

 y 2 



