ANALOGIES OF THE OWLS, 
SS 3 
strong to show that such analogies really do exist, 
and that they follow in a uniform and natural series. 
Thus the lengthened and more conic hill of the barn 
owl reminds us of the Conirostres ; on the other hand, 
the hill of Asia Virginia is described by Dr. Richard- 
son as “ very strong, curved from the base, and with its 
cutting margin very obtusely lobed in the middle,” a 
structure peculiarly belonging to dentirostral types. 
The short tail and the piscatorial habits of the Ngctea 
Candida sufficiently designate the aquatic type. The 
long-legged burrowing owl obviously represents the 
grallatorial order of birds, and the gliriform quadrupeds; 
but whether it is the type of Nyctipeies, or one of its 
subgenera, we know not : while in the long-tailed hawk 
owls of the genus Sarnia, we trace that great develop- 
ment of tail so conspicuous in rasorial types. This, it 
will be remembered, is precisely the order of the pri- 
mary types in the class of birds ; so that if such an ac- 
cordance can be made out from the very few species that 
have yet been thoroughly examined, how much more 
perfect, may we suppose, will these analogies become, 
when the whole are better understood, both as to struc- 
ture and manners, than they are at present. 
(269) It will be observed that the only one of the 
o-enera whose subordinate types we have ventured to 
“ designate, is that of 
Strix. Let us now 
look to this more 
closely ; first, as to 
its circular nature, 
and then to its sub- 
genera. The Strix 
Jiammea {fig- ILI.) 
is unquestionably the 
type of this group, for 
the circumference of its head is greater than that of the 
body, while the facial disk, with the ear and its oper- 
culm, are all proportionably large. It must not be for. 
gotten, also, that as this bird represents the insessorial or 
