﻿EARED OR HORNED OWLS. 



327 



ceding, is full and complete, and the operculum large ; 

 but the eyes, comparatively, are very small. Looking 

 merely to the birds we have already instanced, it would 

 seem that# cinerea holds an intermediate station between 

 S. Tengmalmi and S. stridula : there may naturally be 

 supposed many others intervening, but they seem all to 

 be referable to one or other of these modifications. S. 

 cinerea will therefore form the type of our subgenus 

 Scotiapteoc : the length and graduated shape of the tail 

 separate it both from Scotophilus and Strix ; and its 

 station in this genus, as will presently appear, is in 

 exact accordance with the series in which the primary 

 divisions follow each other. 



(2b'2.) We shall retain the name of Asio to the 

 second genus, as it is sanctioned by antiquity, and is 

 not open to any valid objection.* Here we have the 

 true horned owls, furnished with conspicuous egrets 

 above the eyes, and with large disks and ears. If the 

 assertion is truet that the great European horned owl 

 has no operculum to the ear, this bird will stand next 

 to that found in America {Asio Virginiana), and long 

 considered as of the same species ; for we know, by per- 

 sonal examination, that the latter is destitute of such 

 an appendage. The facial disk is still large, but it is 

 more or less imperfect, especially above the eyes. The 

 grand character, however, of this division is the pos- 

 session of egrets ; and we therefore see this structure, in 

 several foreign species, excessively developed. These 

 latter birds, however, have been so loosely described, 

 that we shall hazard no opinion on their precise situ- 

 ation in this circle ; but there can be little doubt, judging 

 from their published figures, that all the subgeneric 

 types of this group exist. Two of these only, which 

 have been personally examined, will here be noticed. The 

 great white horned owl (Heliaptex arcticus^, fig. 112.) 



* Noctua has been employed by some writers to designate these owls ; 

 but this name has been already appropriated by Linnasus to an extensive 

 group of noctural lepidopterous insects. 



f Regne Animal, i. p. 343. 



X Northern Zoology,, ii. plate 32. under the name of Bubo artica. 

 Y 4 



