ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIES
THE OWLS
Hawk Owls
Passing over a number of small and relatively unimportant genera which were formerly included in that just considered, among them Lo-phostrix, which embraces two rather large South American species, we come to another very large, exclusively Old World genus (Ninox), which includes the so-called Hawk Owls, a name which is also and more properly applied to members of the genus Surnia. They are mostly small or medium sized Owls of very Hawklike appearance, owing to the fact that they are without ear-tufts and to the ruff and facial disk being quite obsolete, while the plumage, especially of wings and tail, is rather firmer than is usual among Owls. They have relatively small heads and rather weak bills, with a swollen cere and the nostrils opening close to the front margin.
The tail is rather long and rounded, while the wings are long and pointed, with the third and fourth quills longest and the first about equal to the seventh. The short tarsus is feathered and the toes are thinly furnished with bristles. The color of the plumage in a majority of the species is an almost uniform chocolate-brown above.
One of the most widely distributed species is the Hairy or Brown Hawk Owl (Ninox scutulata) of the Oriental region, a bird about twelve and a half inches in length, with the plumage a rich chocolate-brown above, the tail boldly barred with blackish, and the under parts chocolate-brown striped with white.
It is a bird of the forests, chiefly nocturnal in its habits, keeping mostly to the thick trees during the daytime, and occasionally observed at evening sitting on a stump or limb. It feeds chiefly on insects, but also on mice, lizards, etc., and has a loud, not unmelodious, hoot which is described as whoo-wuk, while when wounded it is said to utter a cry like that of a hare. Little is known of its breeding habits beyond the fact that it appears to nest in holes in trees.
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