﻿ABERRANT GENERA OF THE T VLS. 329 



however imperfect may have been their facial disk, have 

 nevertheless had its circumference indicated by a line 

 of stiff scale-like feathers, more or less distinct, accord- 

 ing to the degree in which the conch of their ears was 

 developed. But in those which follow, even this remnant 

 of the typical character is lost, together with all ap- 

 pearance of egrets, and even much of the nocturnal 

 habits of the typical owls. Many of those, indeed, 

 which follow, hunt as much during the clay — perhaps 

 more than they do in the night ; and from this circum- 

 stance, no less than from their general physiology, they 

 have been called hawk owls. We have already inti- 

 mated that but for the egrets of the Heliaptex arcticus it 

 would be a Nyctia, the genus to which belongs the 

 great white owl — that e< northern hunter" of the 

 poetic Wilson. This magnificent owl at present stands 

 alone as the representative of this type, which is dis- 

 tinguished by the ears being hardly larger than those 

 of an ordinary bird, and totally unprovided with the 

 series of stiff feathers ; the feet, also, are short, and 

 clothed with thick feathers nearly to the claws. Unlike 

 any of the preceding, the eyebrows project like those 

 of the true falcons ; the head is small, and the habits of 

 the bird are diurnal. These peculiarities, when com- 

 bined, are quite sufficient to justify us, for the present, 

 in placing Nyctia as a distinct genus. We are loath, 

 however, to associate with this large and majestic bird 

 a little group of South American owls, remarkable, on 

 the other hand, for their diminutive size, but yet pos- 

 sessing a much closer affinity to Nyctia than to any 

 other group. Among these tropical passerine owls 

 there exists, at present, so much confusion in regard 

 to the names of the species, that we can hardly venture 

 to cite one, by its correct name, as an example. M. 

 Temminck has increased this confusion so much, that, 

 although the group is almost exclusively American, we 

 may quote the Nyctipetes perlatus Sw.* of Western 

 Africa as a type. The reader will at once perceive that 

 * Le Chevechette Perlee, Ois. d'Afrique, vi. 284. 



