in their oesophagus being of uniform width throughout and
devoid of the large dilatation which forms the crop. Further,
they possess large coeca, while these are wanting in all the
Hawk-tribe so far as is known.
The Owls have usually been arranged in two principal
groups, one in which all the species exhibit two tufts of
feathers on the head—the so-called “ horns ” or “ ears,”
and the second in which the head is not tufted. However
convenient this plan may be, it helps their classification but
a short way, and when it is considered that these tufts
are but superficial appendages and occasionally wanting in
species otherwise closely resembling those that are tufted,
it is plain that more essential characters must be sought
before a natural arrangement of the whole family is reached.
Such characters may doubtless be found on a closer examination
of the structure which the various groups present;
but hitherto no person seems to have placed on record the
results of a sufficient investigation of this subject. I t is
therefore with some diffidence that the Editor proposes to
depart from the arrangement followed in former issues of
this work; hut, having been favoured by Mr. Salvin and
Mr. Sclater with an abstract of their scheme for classifying
the Owls, he trusts that his adaptation of it in the following
pages will be at least of some service in directing attention
to a matter which has long been a puzzle to systematic
are those afforded by the investigations of Dr. Altum as communicated by him to
the German Ornithologists’ Society during its meeting in 1862 :—
N o . of
Pellets
Examined. Bats. Rats. Mice. Voles. Shrews. Moles. Birds. Beetles..
Tawny Owl 210 6 42 296 33 48 1 8 ( l ) 48 0)
Long-eared )
Owl j 25 6 35 2 0
Barn-Owl 706 16 3 237 6 93 , 1590 22 (3)
1 1 Tree-Creeper, 1 Yellow Bunting, 1 Wagtail, 15 small species undetermined.
2 Species of Titmouse. 3 19 Sparrows, 1 Greenfinch, 2 Swifts.
4 Besides a countless number of Cockchaffers.
ornithologists, and may finally lead to more satisfactory
results: it being understood that on some points, which are
chiefly of detail, the scheme projected by his friends is not
strictly observed, and that they accordingly are not responsible
for any of the statements here made.
A cursory examination of the sternum shews that in the
Owls this important bone presents two very distinct forms :
one, which is incomparably the most usual, wherein the
hinder margin is characterized by the possession of two or
four more or less deep clefts, and the other form, in which
this margin is entire or slightly sinuated. Though in a
general way no great reliance is to be placed upon characters
drawn from the posterior portion of the sternum, it is thought
that in the present case this one may be trusted, for it is
found to he combined, in the uncleft form, with others:
the absence, for instance, of the manubrial process in front
of the sternum and the junction of the broad keel of that
bone with the furcula; the remarkable distribution of the
feathers upon the breast, which is almost singular among
Birds*; the peculiar shape of the fold of skin, or operculum,
which lies over the orifice of the e a r; the straightness of
the beak at its base, and the serrated middle-claw. In all
these characters the Barn-Owl and its allies differ from
other Owls, and therefore, by whatever generic name they
are called, they seem to stand as one of the chief groups
and one, perhaps, equal in systematic value to that which
may be briefly characterized hy the fissured sternum and
includes all the rest of the genera. This other group may
further be easily subdivided into the Owls which possess an
operculum to the ear and the Owls which do not, and it
will be sufficient here to state that to the first of these subdivisions
belong the Tawny, Tengmalm’s, the Long-eared
and Short-eared Owls, and to the second the remainder of
the species which will be included in this work. I t thus
follows that no dependence is placed in this arrangement
upon the tufts of feathers—the so-called “ horns or “ ears,
See Nitzsch’s ‘ Pterylograpliy.’ Ray Society’s Translation, pp. 70, 71.