owls is the reversible property of their outer toes, which are when perching 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.
Fig. 1.—Strix occidentalis.
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 Shakespeare, 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.[1] 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 above; 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 S. 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,[2] the duc or grand duc of the French, ranging over the whole of Europe and Asia north of the Himalayas, while the former, B. virginianus, extends over the whole of North America. A contrast to the generally sombre colour of 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 species, 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 shows 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 duc 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. Farther 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.[3] One of the most remarkable of American owls is Speotyto cunicularia, 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
- ↑ All owls have the habit of casting up the indigestible parts of the food swallowed in the form of pellets, which may often be found in abundance under the owl-roost, and reveal without any manner of doubt what the prey of the birds has been. The result in nearly every case shows the enormous service they render to man in destroying rats and mice. Details of many observations to this effect are recorded in the Bericht über die XIV. Versammlung der Deutschen Ornithologen-Gesellschaft (pp. 30-34).
- ↑ This species bears confinement very well, and propagates freely therein. To it belong the historic owls of Arundel Castle.
- ↑ See the remarks of Mr Ridgway in the work before quoted (B. N. America, iii. 9, 10), where also response is made to the observations of Mr Allen in the Harvard Bulletin (ii. 338, 339).
