Now, in all this there is nothing indicative of any affinity to the Herons; the structure of the intestinal canal being essentially like that of the Coots, Gallinules, and Rails. Even the external parts sufficiently indicate its station, the bill; the plumage, and the colouring being more like these of the Rallinæ than of any other family.
The Prince of Musignano, who first described this bird as a Rail, Rallus giganteus, afterwards adopted for it Vieillot’s genus Aramus, and considered it as belonging to the Ardeidæ, forming a connecting link with them and the Rallidæ and “aberrating somewhat towards the Scolopacidæ, as well as tending a little towards the Psophidæ, sub-family Gruinæ” and claiming “again a well-founded resemblance to the most typical form of the genus Rallus.” Finally, he reverts to his original idea, and places it at the head of the Rallidæ. Mr Swainson refers it to the Tantalidæ, associating it with Anastomus, Tantalus, and Ibis, to which it certainly has very little affinity in any point of view.
The efficiency of the digestive organs as a means of determining affinities in cases of doubt, is happily illustrated in this instance; and any person who will make himself acquainted with them will easily discover numerous false associations in all systems founded on the external aspect alone.
HAWK OWL.
Strix funerea, Linn.
PLATE CCCLXXVIII. Male and Female.
It is always disagreeable to an author to come forward when he has little of importance to communicate to the reader, and on no occasion have I felt more keenly than on the present, when introducing to your notice an Owl, of which the habits, although unknown to me, must be highly interesting, as it seems to assimilate in some degree to the diurnal birds of prey. I have never seen it alive, and therefore can only repeat what has been said by one who has. Dr Richardson gives the following account of it in the Fauna Boreali-Americana:—
“It is a common species throughout the Fur Countries from Hudson’s Bay to the Pacific, and is more frequently killed than any other by the hunters, which may be partly attributed to its boldness and its habit of flying about by day. In the summer season it feeds principally on mice and insects; but in the snow-clad regions which it frequents in the winter, neither of these are to be procured, and it then preys mostly on Ptarmigan. It is a constant attendant on the flocks of Ptarmigan in their spring migrations to the northward. It builds its nest on a tree, of sticks, grass, and feathers, and lays two white eggs. When the hunters are shooting Grouse, this bird is occasionally attracted by the report of the gun, and is often bold enough, on a bird being killed, to pounce down upon it, though it may be unable from its size to carry it off. It is also known to hover round the fires made by the natives at night.”
I lately received a letter from my friend Dr Thomas M. Brewer of Boston, Massachusetts, in which he informs me that “the Hawk Owl is very common at Memphramagog Lake in Vermont, where as many as a dozen may be obtained by a good gunner in the course of a single day. Its nests in the hollow trees are also frequently met with.” It is surprising that none should have been seen by Mr Nuttall or Dr Townsend, while crossing the Rocky Mountains, or on the Columbia River; especially as it has been found by my friend Edward Harris, Esq. as far southward on our eastern coast as New Jersey.