A few words are therefore here needed on this most unprofitable subject. Under the generic term Strix Linnaeus placed all the Owls known to him; but Brisson most justifiably divided that genus, and in so doing fixed upon the Ä stridula — the aforesaid Tawny Owl—as its type, while under the name of Asio he established a second genus, of which his contemporary’s S. otus, afterwards to be mentioned, is the type. Some years later Savigny, who had very peculiar notions on nomenclature, disregarding the act of Brisson, chose to regard the Linnaean S. flammea — the Screech-Owl before spoken of—as the type of the genus Strix, which genus he further dissevered, and his example was largely followed until Fleming gave to the Screech-Owl the generic name of Aluco, i by which it had been known for more than three hundred years, and reserved Strix for the Tawny Owl. He thus anticipated Nitzsch, whose editor was probably unacquainted with this, fact when he allowed the name Hybris to be conferred on the Screech-Owl. No doubt inconvenience is caused by changing any general practice; but, as will have been seen, the practice was not universal, and such inconvenience as may arise is not chargeable on those who abide by the law, as it is intended in this article to do. The reader is therefore warned that the word Strix will be here used in what is believed to be the legitimate way, for the genus containing the Strix stridula of Linnaeus, while Aluco is retained for that including the *S , . flammea of the same naturalist.

Except the two main divisions already mentioned, any further arrangement of the Owls must at present be deemed tentative, for the ordinary external characters, to which most systematists trust, are useless if not misleading. Several systematizers have tried to draw characters from the orifice of the ear, and the parts about it; but hitherto these have not been sufficiently studied to make the attempts very successful. If it be true that the predominant organ in any group of animals furnishes for that group the best distinctive characters, we may have some hope of future attempts in this direction, for we know that few birds have the sense of hearing so highly developed as the Owls, and also that the external ear varies considerably in form in several of the genera which have been examined. Thus in Surnia, the Hawk-Owl, and in Nyctea, the Snowy Owl, the external ear is simple in form, and, though proportionally larger than in most birds, it possesses no very remarkable peculiarities,—a fact which may be correlated with the diurnal habits of these Owls—natives of the far north, where the summer is a season of constant daylight, and to effect the capture of prey the eyes are perhaps more employed than the ears. In Bubo, the Eagle-Owl, though certainly more nocturnal in habit, the external ear, however, has no very remarkable development of conch, which may perhaps be accounted for by the ordinary prey of the bird being the larger rodents, that from their size are more readily seen, and hence the growth of the bird’s auditory organs has not been much stimulated. In Strix (as the name is here used), a form depending greatly on its sense of hearing for the capture of its prey, the ear-conch is much enlarged, and it has, moreover, an elevated flap or operculum. In Asio, containing the Long-eared and Short-eared Owls of Europe, Asia, and America, the conch is enormously exaggerated, extending in a semicircular direction from the base of the lower mandible to above the middle of the eye, and is furnished in its whole length with an operculum. But what is more extraordinary in this genus is that the entrance to the ear is asymmetrical— the orifice on one side opening downwards and on the other upwards. This curious adaptation is carried still further in the genus Nyctala, containing two or three small species of the Northern hemisphere, in which the asymmetry that in Asio is only skin-deep extends, in a manner very surprising, to several of the bones of the head, as may be seen in the Zoological Society’s Proceedings (1871, pp. 739- 743), and in the large series of figures given by Messrs Baird, Brewer and Ridgway (N. Am. Birds, iii. pp. 97-102).

Among Owls are found birds which vary in length from 5 inches—as Glaucidiunι cobanense, which is therefore much smaller than a Skylark—to more than 2 feet, a size that is attained by many species. Their plumage, none of the feathers of which possesses an aftershaft, is of the softest kind, rendering their flight almost noiseless. But one of the most characteristic features of this whole group is the ruff, consisting of several rows of small and much-curved feathers with stiff shafts—originating from a fold of the skin, which begins on each side of the base of the beak, runs above the eyes, and passing downwards round and behind the ears turns forward, and ends at the chin— and serving to support the longer feathers of the “disk” or space immediately around the eyes, which extend over it. A considerable number of species of Owls, belonging to various genera, and natives of countries most widely separated, are remarkable for exhibiting two phases of coloration—one in which the prevalent browns have a more or less rusty-red tinge, and the other in which they incline to grey. Another characteristic of nearly all Owls is the reversible property of their outer toes, which are not unfrequently turned at the bird’s pleasure quite backwards. Many forms have the legs and toes thickly clothed to the very claws; others have the toes, and even the tarsi, bare, or only sparsely beset by bristles. Among the bare-legged Owls those of the Indian Ketupa are conspicuous, and this feature is usually correlated with their fish-catching habits; but certainly other Owls that are not known to catch fish present much the same character.

Among the multitude of Owls there is only room here to make further mention of a few of the more interesting. First must be noticed the Tawny Owl—the Strix stridula of Linnaeus, the type, as has been above said, of the whole group, and especially of the Strigine section as here understood. This is the Syrnium aluco of some authors, the Chat-huant of the French, the species whose tremulous hooting “tu-whit, to-who,” has been celebrated by Shakespear, and, as well as the plaintive call, “keewick,” of the young after-leaving the nest, will be familiar sounds to many readers, for the bird is very generally distributed throughout most parts of Europe, extending its range through Asia Minor to Palestine, and also to Barbary—but not belonging to the Ethiopian Region or to the eastern half of the Palaearctic. It is the largest of the species indigenous to Britain, and is strictly a woodland bird, only occasionally choosing any other place for its nest than a hollow tree. Its food consists almost entirely of small mammals, chiefly rodents; but, though on this account most deserving of protection from all classes, it is subject to the stupid persecution of the ignorant, and is rapidly declining in numbers. Its nearest allies in North America are the S. nebulosa, with some kindred forms, one of which, the S. occidentalis of California and Arizona, is figured below; but none of them seem to have the “merry note” that is uttered by the

European species. Common to the most northerly forest-tracts of both continents (for, though a slight difference of coloration is observable between American examples and those from the Old World, it is impossible to consider it specific) is the much larger N. cinerea or S. lapponica, whose iron-grey plumage, delicately mottled with dark brown, and the concentric circles of its facial disks make it one of the most remarkable of the group. Then may be noticed the genus Bubo— containing several species which from their size are usually known as Eagle-Owls. Here the Nearctic and Palaearctic forms are sufficiently distinct—the latter, B. ignavus, ' i the Due or Grand Due of the French, ranging over the whole of Europe and Asia north of the Himalayas, while the former, B. virginiamιs, extends over the whole of North America. A contrast to the generally sombre colourof these birds is shown by the Snowy Owl, Nyctea scandiaca, a circumpolar species, and the only one of its genus, which disdains the shelter of forests and braves the most rigorous arctic climate, though compelled to migrate southward in winter when no sustenance is left for it. Its large size and white plumage, more or less mottled with black, distinguish this from every other Owl. Then may be mentioned the birds commonly known in English as “Horned” Owls—the Hibous of the French, belonging to the genus Asio. One, A. otus (the Otus vulgaris of some authors), inhabits woods, and, distinguished by its long tufts, usually borne erected, would seem to be common to both America and Europe—though experts profess their ability to distinguish between examples from each country. Another specieε, A. accipitrinus (the Otus brachyotus of many authors), has much shorter tufts on its head, and they are frequently carried depressed so as to escape observation. This is the ‘‘Woodcock-Owl” of English sportsmen, for, though a good many are bred in Great Britain, the majority arrive in autumn from Scandinavia, just about the time that the immigration of Woodcocks occurs. This species frequents heaths, moors, and the open country generally, to the exclusion of woods, and has an enormous geographical range, including not only all Europe, North Africa, and northern Asia, but the whole of America,—reaching also to the Falklands, the Galapagos, and the Sandwich Islands,—for the attempt to separate specifically examples from those localities only shews that they possess more or less well-defined local races. Commonly placed near Asio, but whether really akin to it cannot be stated, is the genus Scops, of which nearly forty species, coming from different parts of the world, have been described; but this number should probably be reduced by one half. The type of the genus, S. giu, the Petit Due of the French, is a well-known bird in the south of Europe, about as big as a Thrush, with very delicately pencilled plumage, occasionally visiting Britain, emigrating in autumn across the Mediterranean, and ranging very far to the eastward. Further southward, both in Asia and Africa, it is represented by other species of very similar size, and in the eastern part of North America by S. asio, of which there is a tolerably distinct western form, S. kennicotti, besides several local races. S. asio is one of the Owls that especially exhibits the dimorphism of coloration above mentioned, and it was long before the true state of the case was understood. At first the two forms were thought to be distinct, and then for some time the belief obtained that the ruddy birds were the young of the greyer form which was called S. naevia ; but now the “Red Owl” and the “Mottled Owl” of the older American ornithologists are known to be one species. One of the most remarkable of American Owls is Speotyto nmicularia, the bird that in the northern part of the continent inhabits the burrows of the prairie dog, and in the southern those of the biscacha, where the latter occurs—making holes for itself, says Darwin, where that is not the case,—rattlesnakes being often also joint tenants of the same abodes. The odd association of these animals, interesting as it is, cannot here be more than noticed, for a few words must be said, ere we leave the Owls of this section, on the species which has associations of a very different kind—the bird of Pallas Athene, the emblem of the city to which science and art were so welcome. There can be no doubt, from the many representations on coins and sculptures, as to their subject being the Carine noctua of modern ornithologists, but those who know the grotesque actions and ludicrous expression of this veritable buffoon of birds can never cease to wonder at its having been seriously selected as the symbol of learning, and can hardly divest themselves of a suspicion that the choice must have been made in the spirit of sarcasm. This Little Owl (for that is its only name —though it is not even the smallest that appears in England), the Chevêche of the French, is spread throughout the greater part of Europe, but it is not a native of Britain. It has a congener in C. brama, a bird well known to all residents in India.

Finally, we have Owls of the second section, those allied to the Screech-Owl, Aluco flammeus, the Effraie of the French. This, with its discordant scream, its snoring, and its hissing, is far too well known to need description, for it is one of the most widely-spread of birds, and is the Owl that has the greatest geographical range, inhabit!ι g almost every country in the world,—Sweden and Norway, America north of lat. 45°, and New Zealand being the principal exceptions. It varies, however, not inconsiderably, both in size and intensity of colour, and several ornithologists have tried to found on these variations more than half a dozen distinct species. Some, if not most of them, seem, however, hardly worthy to be considered geographical races, for their differences do not always depend on locality. Mr Sharpe, with much labour and in great detail, has given his reasons (Cat. B. Brit. Museum, ii. pp. 291-309; and 0mith. Miscellany, i. pp. 269-298; ii. pp. 1-21) for acknowledging four “subspecies” of A. flammeus, as well as five other species. Of these last, A. tenebricosus is peculiar to Australia, while A. novae-hollandiae inhabits also New Guinea, and has a “subspecies,” A. castanops, found only in Tasmania; a third, A. candidus, has a wide range from Fiji and northern Australia through the Philippines and Formosa to China, Burmah, and India; a fourth, A. capensis, is peculiar to South Africa; while A. thomensis is said to be confined to the African island of St Thomas. To these may perhaps have to be added a species from New Britain, described by Count Salvador! as Strix aurantia, but it may possibly prove on further investigation not to be an Alucine Owl at all.