. Key to North American birds. Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of Greenland and lower California, with which are incorporated General ornithology, an outline of the structure and classification of birds, and Field ornithology, a manual of collecting, preparing, and preserving birds . a natural, sharply-defined 620 5 YS TEMA TIC S Y NOP SIS. — RA P TOR ES — S TRIGES. group. They are highly monomorphic, without extremes of aberrant form ; Lut the ease withwhich t
. Key to North American birds. Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of Greenland and lower California, with which are incorporated General ornithology, an outline of the structure and classification of birds, and Field ornithology, a manual of collecting, preparing, and preserving birds . a natural, sharply-defined 620 5 YS TEMA TIC S Y NOP SIS. — RA P TOR ES — S TRIGES. group. They are highly monomorphic, without extremes of aberrant form ; Lut the ease withwhich they are collectively defined is a measure of the difficulty of their rigid subdivision, whichis not yet satisfactorily determined. Too much stress has been laid upon the trivial, althoughevident, circumstance of presence or absence of the peculiar horns that many species pos-sess. These are tufts of lengthened feathers rising over the eyes from the forehead, commonlycalled ear-tufts; but they have nothing to do with the ears, and are more appropriatelynamed plumicorns, or feather-horns. More reliable characters may be drawn from thestructure of the external ear and facial disc, the modifications of which appear to bear directlyupon mode of life; these parts being as a rule most highly developed in the more nocturnalspecies; some points of internal structure have been found correspondent. Thus, one group,. Fig. 4 .5. — ■ Est illis Slririihu!: nomen ; sed nominis Imjus Causa quod horrenda stridere uocte soieiit. — Ovid, Fiisli, vi. 139. Screec/i-oivls they re called, because with dismal crylu darkling uight from place to place they fly. of which the Barn Owl, Aluco flammeuSi is type, is very distinct in the angular contour andhigh development of the facial disc, pectination of middle claw, and other characters uponwhich a family Aluconidce may be established. Probably the rest of the suborder fall in twosubdivisions of a single family Strigidce, the essential characters
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirdsnorthamerica
