334 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 
perching order, its powers of grasping ought to he 
more than ordinary ; we consequently find that one of 
the claws is serrated, to give the bird a firmer grasp 
than it otherwise would have. But this is not all ; as 
the consequence of its analogy to the Insessores, and 
through them to the Conirontres, we get at the true 
value of a remark of M. Cuvier, that in this bird, and 
its allies, the “ elongated beak bends only towards the 
end, while in all the other subgenera it is arched from 
the point.”* Now this is precisely the character which 
separates the conirostral birds from the dentirostral. 
We have before expressed our hesitation in admitting 
the brown or wood owl of Britain, forming the genus 
Syrnium of Savigny, to be a distinct type. It certainly 
differs in its ears from the barn owl ; but it has not 
sufficient of the dentirostral form to make us feel sure 
of its representing that type : the question must there- 
fore, for the present, he left undecided. Less doubt 
hangs over the subgenus Otis, where the egrets first 
begin to show themselves in the short-eared, and are 
fully developed in the long-eared owls of Britain ; both, 
however, by their ears, preserve the typical character. 
There is a remarkable trait in the natural history of 
Otis brachyotos, which deserves attention • for although 
nocturnal, it seems to be also diurnal, and hunts 
during the middle of the day t, like the JVyctia Can- 
dida, just as well as it does in the night. The supe- 
rior length of its wings, more pointed than any in this 
genus, would seem to indicate that it is, probably, like 
Nyctia, a fissirostral type. Next to this group we have 
the little passerine owls of Europe, forming the new sub- 
genus Scotophilus ; they are strictly nocturnal, and are 
known at once by their short, thick, well-covered tarsi 
and toes, and their small yet complete facial disk. 
Lastly, come the great species of Scotiaptex, conspicuous 
by their long cuneated tails and large size. Some of 
these, as S. cinerea J, are nocturnal ; but — as they pass 
• Griffith’s Cuvier, i. p. ^4■. -j. Bewick. 
t Northern Zoology, ii. plate 31. 
