THE TRUE OWLS. 
77 
as forming a separate Order, these features of relationship with 
the Ospreys must never be overlooked. 
Owls are distinguished, as a rule, by their soft and downy 
plumage and by their large and rounded heads, with the eyes 
directed fonvards, not laterally placed as in Eagles and Hawks. 
The face is generally, but not always, surrounded by a disk of 
stiffened feathers, a feature only seen in the Harriers and 
Harrier-Hawks among the Accipitres. 
As the Owls are mostly nocturnal in their habits, the 
plumage is very soft and the flight noiseless, so that the birds 
are able to steal upon their prey without being heard ; and the 
wings are very broad, with soft wehs to the quills, which pro- 
duce no sound when the bird is flying. The young birds, 
when hatched, are covered with down, generally white, but in 
some species black; they are fed in the nest by the parent 
birds for a considerable time. 
The Owls may be divided into two Families, of which the 
Barn-Owl is the type of the Strigida, while all the rest of the 
Owls belong to the Bubo7iid(e, of which the Eagle-Owl may be 
taken as the type. 
THE TRUE OWLS. FAMILY BUBONIDAS. 
In these birds the hinder margin of the breast-bone, or 
sternum, has two or more clefts or fissures; the furcula, or 
merry-thought, is free, and not attached to the keel of the 
sternum. There is no serration on the inner margin of the 
claw of the middle toe, and the latter is longer than the inner 
toe. 
There are two Sub-families of the True Owls, the Bubotiiitcz. 
which have the facial disk imperfect and less developed above 
the eye, and the Syrniinm, in which the disk is perfect. 
In the Btibo7iina: are included all the Fishing-Owls {Ketupa), 
the Eagle-Owls {Bubo), the I'ufted Owls {Scops), the Snowy 
Owls {Nyciea), the Hawk-Owls {Sur/iid), the Little Owls 
{Carme),jh& Burrowing-Owls {Speofyto), and the Pigmy Owls 
{GIa7ictdi7i7/i), besides some other tropical genera, of which we 
have no representatives in Europe. 
