ACC I PITRES. STRIOIDAi.
Strix aluco, Linnasus *.
THE TAWNY OWL.
Syrnium stridula j.
S t r i x , Linnceust.— Bill deeurved from the base. Nostrils large. Facial disk
large and complete; ears large and furnished in front with a large, crescentic
operculum, broad below and tapering above. Wings short and rounded ; the first
quill very short, the fourth the longest. Tail long, concave beneath. Legs and
toes feathered. Head large, round and without tufts.
I he characters and appearance of Owls are so singular
that once seen they are not readily forgotten. The head is
* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 132 (1766).
+ Stephens, Gen. Zool. xiii. part ii, p. 62 (1826).
t Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 131 (1766)
large, the expression grotesque, the body bulky in appearance,
the plumage soft and downy. Unlike the Falconida,
which hunt for their food by day, nearly all the Owls seek
their prey during the twilight and probably during the
greater part of the night. From their nocturnal habit, the
singular appearance produced by the arrangement of the
feathers of the face, the peculiar hollow tone of voice, and
the additional circumstance of some of the species selecting
ruins or buildings in grave-yards as places of resort, for the
solitude there afforded, Owls have been considered by the
superstitious in all countries and at all times as birds of
darkness and ill-omen, and by some even as messengers of
doom. Thus Shakespear says—
1 Out oil ye, Owls! nothing but songs of death ’—Richard the Third.
The eyes of Owls are large, and particularly susceptible of
impressions from light. If exposed to the glare of day,
most of the species seem to be overpowered by it, and their
eyes are either closed entirely or screened by an internal
eyelid. Their flight is easy, buoyant and noiseless. The
species vary greatly in size and, according to their several
powers, their food consists of mammals, birds, reptiles and
occasionally fishes ; while, chiefly among the smaller kinds,
twilight-flying beetles and large moths are also the object of
search. Owls, like the other birds-of-prey, as already mentioned,
return by the mouth the indigestible parts of the
food swallowed in the form of elongated pellets ; these are
found in considerable numbers about the usual haunts of
the birds, and examination of them reveals the nature of
the food, and shews in nearly every case the great services
they render to man by the destruction of rats and mice.*'
But the Owls differ from nearly all the Falconidce in their
feathers wanting the accessory plumule or aftershaft, and
* The infallibility of the evidence thus afforded as to the food of Owls is as
complete as the way of obtaining it, by those who have the opportunity, is simple.
Several German naturalists have made some very precise researches on this subject.
The following results with regard to our three commonest species of Owls