58 
STRIGIN^. 
the secondary quills and tail ash-grey have not hitherto been 
observed in Britain. 
Male, , 16 ^%, 1/^, 3/^, 1/^, 1. Female, 24, 52. | 
Very rare in Scotland, but not uncommon in some parts of I 
England. According to Montagu the nest is most frequently ! 
made on the ground, but sometimes in the fork of a large tree; ; 
the eggs white. The rutf is less conspicuous in this species, , 
for which reason some have instituted a distinct genus for its ij 
reception. It flies low, and feeds on waterfowl, especially 
young ducks, water-rats, frogs, lizards, fish, and insects. 
Moor Harrier. Moor Buzzard. Harpy. Duck Hawk. 
Falco seruginosus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 130. — Falco rufus, > 
Temm. Man. d’Ornith. i. 69. — Circus seruginosus, Marsh i 
Harrier, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, iii. 382. | 
FAMILY III. STRIGIN^. STKIGINE BIEDS, , 
OE OWLS. 
The Striginse, which are separated from the Falconi- • 
nse by a rather wide interval, are distinguished by their ’ 
extremely large head, and especially the direction of their ’ 
generally enormous eyes, which, in place of being lateral, , 
are either anterior, or oblique. Bill short, generally 
stout, cerate, wide at the base, compressed toward the ' 
end ; upper mandible with its dorsal line declinate and 
decurved, its edges destitute of prominent lobe, the tip 
prolonged, decurved, acute ; lower mandible with the 
angle wide ; the edges decurved with a shallow sinus 
close to the rounded tip. Tongue small, fleshy, deeply 
emarginate, and papillate at the base, channelled above, 
horny beneath, with the tip narrowed and emarginate or 
bifid ; oesophagus very wide, of nearly equal diameter 
throughout, being destitute of crop ; proventriculus wide ; 
stomach large, roundish, with the muscular coat very 
thin, and composed of a single series of fasciculi, the 
epithelium soft or somewhat hard, smooth or rugous ; in- 
testine short ; coeca large, oblong, narrowed at the base ; 
cloaca large and globular. Trachea short, wide, of thin and 
slender rings ; inferior lary nx with a single pair of muscles. 
