﻿ANALOGIES OF THE OWLS. 



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strong to show that such analogies really do exist, 

 and that they follow in a uniform and natural series. 

 Thus the lengthened and more conic bill of the barn 

 owl reminds us of the Conirostres ; on the other hand, 

 the bill of Asio Virginia is described by Dr. Richard- 

 son as " very strongs curved from the base, and with its 

 cutting margin very obtusely lobed in the middle/' a 

 structure peculiarly belonging to dentirostral types. 

 The short tail and the piscatorial habits of the Nyctea 

 Candida sufficiently designate the aquatic type. The 

 long-legged burrowing owl obviously represents the 

 grallatorial order of birds, and the gliriform quadrupeds : 

 but whether it is the type of Nyctipetes, or one of its 

 subgenera, we know not : while in the long-tailed hawk 

 owls of the genus Surnia, we trace that great develop- 

 ment of tail so conspicuous in rasorial types. This, it 

 will be remembered, is precisely the order of the pri- 

 mary types in the class of birds ; so that if such an ac- 

 cordance can be made out from the very few species that 

 have yet been thoroughly examined, how much more 

 perfect, may we suppose, will these analogies become, 

 when the whole are better understood, both as to struc- 

 ture and manners, than they are at present. 



(269) It will be observed that the only one of the 

 genera whose subordinate types we have ventured to 



designate, is that of 

 Strix. Let us now 

 look to this more 

 closely ; first, as to 

 its circular nature, 

 and then to its sub- 

 genera. The Strix 

 flammea {fig. 113.) 

 is unquestionably the 

 type of this group^ for 

 the circumference of its head is greater than that of the 

 body, while the facial disk, with the ear and its oper- 

 culm, are all proportionably large. It must not be for- 

 gotten, also, that as this bird represents the insessorial or 



