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A Natural History for Young People: Our Animal Friends in Their Native Homes / including mammals, birds and fishes cover

A Natural History for Young People: Our Animal Friends in Their Native Homes / including mammals, birds and fishes

Chapter 164: HORNLESS OWLS.
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About This Book

Aimed at young readers, this natural-history guide presents mammals, birds, and fishes organized by families and explained in clear, nontechnical language. It surveys primates, carnivores (including bears, cats, and dogs), seals, bats, insectivores, toothless and gnawing mammals, marsupials, pachyderms, ruminants, and whales, alongside many bird groups such as owls and birds of prey. Habits, habitats, anatomy, and relationships among species are described, with necessary scientific terms defined in accessible prose. More than a hundred illustrations and colored plates accompany the text to clarify forms, behavior, and comparative classification.

HORNLESS OWLS.

The Hornless Owls are much like the others with the exception of their smooth round heads, without any projecting feathers to form curious ears and horns. There are many species in this group, the principal ones being the Snow Owls, the Barn or Screech Owls, the Hawk or Canada Owls, Brown or Tawny Owls, Ural Owls, Burrowing Owls, and Sparrow Owls.

The Barn or Screech Owls are among the best known of the family, as they are found in nearly all parts of the globe. The White Owl, or Snow Owl, sometimes called the Harfang, may also be found in all parts of North America, Europe and Asia. Its plumage is a brilliant white, with some black spots on the head. This color is well suited to the nature of the places in which it lives, for it sometimes inhabits the most desolate solitudes of North America, Newfoundland, Hudson’s Bay, Greenland and Iceland; and its color harmonizes so well with its surroundings that it can traverse almost unseen, the immense deserts of snow in search of its prey.