. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization. Animals. ACCIPITRES. 173 chiefly during twilight, or by the light of the moon. When attacked by day, or struck by the appearance of some new object, they [the majority of them] do not fly off", but stand more erect, assume grotesque attitudes, and make the most ludicrous gestures. Their stomach is tolerably muscular, [as compared with the Falcons,] although their prey is wholly animal, consisting of Mice, small birds, [even fish in some instances,] and insects ; but IS preceded by a large craw, [an inadvertent statement o
. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization. Animals. ACCIPITRES. 173 chiefly during twilight, or by the light of the moon. When attacked by day, or struck by the appearance of some new object, they [the majority of them] do not fly off", but stand more erect, assume grotesque attitudes, and make the most ludicrous gestures. Their stomach is tolerably muscular, [as compared with the Falcons,] although their prey is wholly animal, consisting of Mice, small birds, [even fish in some instances,] and insects ; but IS preceded by a large craw, [an inadvertent statement of the author, as the absence of any expansion of the gullet, which is wide, but always of uniform diameter (see fig. 79 a), invariably distinguishes the nocturnal from all the diurnal birds of prey] ; the cœca (ô) are long, and enlarged towards the extremity, &c. Small Birds have a natural antipathy to them, and assemble from all parts to assail them; hence they are employed to attract Birds to the snare. [It may be added, that their tarsi are in no in- stance scaled, even when denuded of feathers, as in the subdivision Ketupa ; all of them lay round white eggs.] They form one genus, that of. The Owls {Strix, Linn.),— Which may be divided according to their head-tufts, the size of their ears, the extent of the circle of feathers which surrounds their eyes, and some other characters. Those species which around the eyes have a large complete disk of fringed feathers, itself siurounded by a circle or collar of scaly feathers, and between the two a large opening for the ear (see fig. 80), are more removed in their form and manners from the diurnal Birds of Prey, than those in which the ear is small, oval, and covered by fringed feathers which come from below the eye. Traces of these differences are perceptible even in the skeleton, [though only as regards the degree of stoutness of the :«,theguiiet>o"es (seefigs. 81 and84), there being
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