The Oivls. 
103 
The Owls .— Order S trigi formes. 
In the preceding pages I have discussed all the birds of the orders Passeriformes, 
Pici, Coccyges, and Picaricc which are found in Great Britain. These are the Insessores 
of the older authors. I now come to the groups of the larger and more conspicuous 
birds, the British species of which I shall pass in review. The Owls are considered 
by some modern ornithologists not to be true Birds of Prey like Eagles and Hawks, 
but to constitute a totally distinct group, not very far removed from the Parrots. 
I cannot, however, agree to this proposition at all, for, allowing that the Owls are 
somewhat aberrant in structure, they so closely resemble other Birds of Prey in 
their habits and method of capturing their food that they must be held to be part 
of the great Accipitrine group, being connected with the Eagles and Falcons, etc., 
by the intermediate form Pandion which contains the Ospreys only. The Owls 
are remarkable for having a reversible outer toe, that is to say, this toe can be 
turned either backwards or forwards at will. As a rule the plumage is very soft 
and downy, and the flight noiseless, as befits a nocturnal bird setting forth to 
capture mice and other unwary animals in the gloaming. Some of the day-flying 
species, however, such as the Hawk-Owls and the Snowy Owls, have a more 
close-set and harsher plumage. The ear-openings of the Owl are always a feature 
in the different genera and vary to a great extent, being sometimes shut in by 
an operculum, while in many cases the bony orifices are not symmetrical on both 
sides of the head, and differ in shape. There are two great families of Owls, 
the Bubonidce and the Strigidcc, which are at once distinguished by the form of 
the ‘ merry-thought ’ or furcula, which is free in the former, but is united to the 
sternum in the Strigidcc, of which the Barn Owl is our only British representative, 
all the other species of Owls belonging to the Bubonidce. 
This is a magnificent bird measuring two-and-a-half or three 
feet in length, and remarkable for its dark colour and strongly 
mottled plumage. It is scarcely possible to give a description of 
an Owl’s plumage in detail, as there are so many wavy lines and 
mottlings, but the Eagle-Owl is easily recognised by its large size, enormous ear-tufts 
of feathers, and by its densely feathered toes. It is only a rare and accidental visitor to 
Great Britain, and is more often seen here in captivity than in a wild state. Its range 
extends throughout Europe and Northern Asia to Eastern Siberia. 
As might be imagined in so powerful a bird, the Eagle-Owl is capable of 
THE 
EAGLE-OWL. 
(Biibo bubo.) 
