BIRDS OF PREY. OWLS. 
32.-3 
better. It may also be remarked, that in those owls 
which are partly diurnal in their habits, the facial disk 
is small or imperfect ; while in such as hunt during the 
day, like the snowy owl, the disk is hardly perceptible. 
Independent of the retractile claws which the owls 
possess in common with the falcons, they have the 
faculty, unpossessed by the latter, of bringing their 
external toe either backwards or forwards, in the same 
manner as is seen in the plantain eaters and a few of 
the cuckows. Their enormous head and large eyes 
give them a most grotesque appearance, particularly 
when disturbed during the day : on such occasions they 
bob their head up and down, and turn it about in all 
directions, as if they were half blind, and were endea- 
vouring to get a clear sight of the object which annoyed 
them. We have frequently endeavoured to rear and 
tame young owls from the nest, but no efforts to ac- 
complish the latter object were ever successful. One of 
the typical groups has tjie head ornamented with tufts 
of feathers, longer than the others, and which are placed 
above the ears. These egrets have been improperly 
termed horns — a term, no doubt, originating in their 
analogy to those processes in quadrupeds. The use, 
however, of these singular appendages is totally un- 
known. Owls, no less than hawks, are feared and 
hated by all the smaller birds, who shun the latter, but 
fear not to attack the former during the day when their 
retreat is discovered, as if conscious they can do so with 
impunity. 
(259.) 7 'he natural arrangement of this group has 
been attempted by several of our best writers ; but the 
task, difficult in itself, has been rendered still more so 
by the manner in which it has been conducted. When 
so much stress has been laid, in tbe Rt:gne Animal, 
upon tbe importance of making anatomical organisation 
the basis of systematic divisions, we are led, from the 
high reputation of the author, to place implicit con- 
fidence, if not in the mode in which hefcomhines his 
facts, at least in the facts themselves, more especiallv 
Y 2 
