78 The American Geologist. August, laio 
unharmed and went farther on where I shot a species of Tyranula or 
Pewee, which has interested me much on account of some peculiar- 
ilies of plumage in which it differs from the species which I am ac- 
quainted with. Deeper in the wood I came across what I always like 
to meet, a flock of titmice (Parus), nuthatches (Sitta) and wood-warb- 
!ers (Sylvicola, Vermivora, etc.) which in spring and from this time 
till towards winter, perambulate the woods in busy and active search 
for their insect prey. The Sylvicolas, of which the flocks are princi- 
pally composed, are with but few exceptions migratory, being seen 
here in spring and fall only, breeding northward, and wintering in 
the West Indies, Guiana, etc. Many of the species are very elegant. 
The little flock of which I speak was making a great fuss and noise 
about something in the top of a tall hickory, which I at last made out 
to be the form of an owl, which looked at me most singularly with its 
great eyes; and its keratoid (keras eisos) tufts of feathers added to its 
odd appearance. After a little debate as to the necessity of taking the 
life of a bird so really useful, I put the stock to my shoulder, and he 
was soon wheeling down from the tree. I was pleased and surprised 
to find it a species which I had not seen before — Ephialtes naevia 
"The mottled owl." The owls (Strigidae) form the third and last 
family of the Raptorial order. The present genus (Ephialtes) comes 
in the sub-family Buboninae of which Bubo is the type (containing 
(e. g.) the ''great horned owl" B. virginianus and others) and which 
contains but two other genera (Lophostrix and Ketupa). No\V in this 
sub-family Buboninse, I can show thee a rather pretty example of the 
carrying out of the quinarian and representative theory, in nature. 
True the genera in it are but four, but many owls are yet to be dis- 
covered; besides, an author, not a quinarian, has made a fifth genus 
from an aberrant species of Bubo; "Urrua" from B. Bengalensis, and 
it may be a good genus, especially as the deficiency occurs between 
Bubo, and the East Indian genus Ketupa. However, these are the 
analogies. 
r RK f size large; form preeminently rap- I analogous to 
1. oen. tiuDo. ^ xox\^\, i. e. the instruments of de- \ order 
'i struction best developed. J Raptores. 
2. Gen. f size small; species very numerous^ 
Ephialtes | instruments of destruction less de- I 
1 J /- u- 1 J- . -u /-Insessores. 
veloped. Geographical distnbu- j 
tion very general. j 
3- ^en. \ Head with a very large crest. ,• Rasores. 
Lopostnx / 3 b y, 
4. Gen. Ketupa \ legs very long and slender; bill / Qj-allatores 
' ditto for an owl. !> 
5. Gen. ? 
The last form connecting with Bubo and representing the Nata- 
tores or aquatic type, not certainly known. The first two and the last. 
