INTRODUGEION xlvill Genus ATHENE. i 1S IFISeS - species, distributed over Europe, India, and other ortions Ae This section of the Owls comprises many species, p = re 5 ivided into no less than fifteen sub the Old World. By modern systematists these have been subdivided in genera, the iculars of which need not be detailed here, inasmuch as we have only to deal with the single species particu ars O which visits our country. , : Vol. I. Pl. XXXVIL. 44, ATHENE NOCTUA Litrte Ow. A very common bird in France and other parts of Europe. In England it may have and doubtless has occurred more frequently than has been supposed ; but it is a bird which cannot be easily detected, however diligently it may be searched for. Numerous instances of its occurrence are on record; and besides the nest mentioned by Hunt as having been taken at no great distance from Norwich, another is reported to have been met with in the New Forest, and the young taken and reared at Harrow. ORDER INSESSORES. Family CAPRIMULGIDA. Members of this great family of nocturnal birds frequent the warmer portions of almost every part of the globe, and are nearly as varied in structure as they are numerous in species. In the New World the cave- loving Steatornis and the long-tailed Hydropsales are among the most conspicuous of the forms inhabiting that section of the world, as the great Podargi and the eared Lyncornithes are of those inhabiting the Old. Their food mainly consists of insects and their larvae, with occasionally fruits and berries. Genus Caprimuteus. The birds of this restricted form are confined to the Old World, over the greater portion of which they range. Two are found in Great Britain. 45. Caprimuieus EUROPEUS : : ; Vol. Ne let - ° . ° ° . ° 8 Nieutsar or Goat-s UCKER. The Nightjar G ( Suck ( , | Cc ora ~ O \f-su kk iF Tye , veces hats osee . . . . : akc! ? ¢ Cr; or hu n O; il, by W hich trivial hames this species 1S