BARED OB HORNED OWLS. 
ceding, is full and complete, and the operculum larp ; 
but the eyes, comparatively, are very small. Looking 
merely to the birds we have already instanced, it would 
seem that. S' cinerea holds an intermediate station between 
S. Tengmalmi and S. Hridula : there may naturally be 
supposed many others intervening, but they seem all to 
be referable to one or other of these modifications. S. 
cinerea will therefore form the type of our subgenus 
Scotiaptex : the length and graduated shape of the tail 
separate it both from Scotophilus and Strix; and its 
station in this genus, as will presently appear, is in 
exact accordance with the series in which the primary 
divisions follow each other. 
( 262 .) We shall retain the name of Asm to the 
second genus, as it is sanctioned by antiquity, and is 
not open to any valid objection.* Here we have the 
true horned owls, furnished with conspicuous egrets 
above the eyes, and with large disks and ears. If the 
assertion is truet that the great European horned owl 
has no operculum to the ear, this bird will stand next 
to that found in America {Asia Virginiana), and long 
considered as of the same species ; for we know, by j)er- 
sonal examination, that the latter is destitute of such 
an appendage. The facial disk is still large, hut it is 
more or less imperfect, especially above the eyes. The 
grand character, however, of this division is the pos- 
session of egrets; and we therefore see this structure, in 
several foreign species, excessively developed. Thefie 
latter birds, however, have been so loosely described, 
that we shall hazard no opinion on their precise situ- 
ation in this circle ; but there can be little doubt, judging 
from their published figures, that all the subgeneric 
types of this group exist. Two of these only,^which 
have been personally examined, will here be noticeu. The 
great white horned owl (^Heliaptex arcticusXi fid- 112.) 
• Noctua has been employed by some writers to designate these owls ; 
but this name has been already appropriated by Linnaus to an extensive 
group of noctural lepidopterous insects. 
+ R^gne Animal, i. p.SiS. - _ , 
t Northern Zoology,, ii. plate 32. under the name of Bubo ariica. 
Y 4 
