OWEN SOUND, a t., the co. seat of Grey co. Ontario, Canada, at the mouth of Sydenham river, on Owen sound; on a branch of the Toronto, Grey, and Bruce railroad; Top. '70. 3,;369. The harbor is the best in lake Huron, 12 m. long, and 5 m. wide at its v. ides! point. The town -is built on a plain inclosed on 3 sides by heights. It has a «ant-house, town-ltall, churches, and 2 weekly newspapers. It is an exporting point for lumber and grain, the largest vessels used on the lakes entering the harbor without diffi •ulty. There is abundant water-power. There are grain elevators, flour and saw mills, and manufactories of woolen goods, leather, machinery, agricultural tools, engines, etc.
OWL, a numerous and extremely well-defined group of birds, constituting the Linnatan genus Stria., now the family Strigicice, the whole of the nocturnal section of birds of prey. The aspect of the owls at once distinguishes them from all otherbirds, being rendered very peculiar by the large size of theirbeads, and by their great eyes, forwards, and m surrounded with more dr less perfect disks of feathers radiating outwards, whilst the small hooked bill is half concealed by the feathers of these disks, and by bristly feathers which grow at its base. The bill is curved almost from its base; the upper inaudible not notched. but much hooked at the tip. The claws are sharp and curved, but, like the bill, less powerful than in the Falconidte. The outer toe is generally reversible at plea sure, so that the toes can be opposed two and two, to give greater security of grasp. The wings, although generally long, are less adapted for rapid and sustained flight than those of the diurnal birds of prey, and the bony which they are supported, and the muscles which move them, are less powerful; the owls in general taking their prey, not by pursuit, but by surprise, to which there is a beautiful adaptation in the softness of their plumage, and their consequently noiseless flight; the feathers even of the wings being downy, and not offering a firm resisting surface to the air, as in falcons. Thesoft and loose plumage adds much to the apparent size of the body, and also of the head ; but the head owes its really large size to large cavities in the skull between its outer and inner tables or bony layers, which cavities communicate with the car, and are supposed to add to the acuteness of the sense of hearing. This sense is certainly very acute, and the ear is, in many of the species, very large. It is furnished with an external conch, which is
found in no other birds. It is, however, concealed by the feathers, being situated on the outside of the disk which surrounds the eye; but the feathers immediately surround. ing the car are arranged in a kind of cone, serving a purpose like that of an ear-trumpet. In some species the ear is furnished with a remarkable lid or operculum, which the bird has the power of opening and shutting at pleasure. The disk which surrounds the eye serves to collect rays of light and throw them on the pupil; and owls can see well in twilight or moonlight, hut are generally incapable of sustaining the glare of day, many of them becoming qp.e bewildered when exposed to it, and evidently suffering pain, which they instinctively seek to relieve by frequent motion of the third eyelid or nictita ting membrane of the eye. The legs and feet of owls are feathered to the toes, and in many species even to the claws.
The digestive organs, much resemble those of the falconidfe, but there is no crop, and the stomach is more muscular. The gullet is very wide throughout, and owls swallow their prey either entire or in very large morsels. The largest species feed on hares, fawns, the largest gallinaceous birds, etc.; others on small mammalia, reptiles, birds, and some times fishes; some feed partly or chiefly on large insects.
The owl has from early tithes been deemed a bird of evil omen, and has been an ob ject of dislike and dread to the superstitious. This is perhaps partly to be ascribed to the manner with which it is often seen suddenly and unexpectedly to flit by when the twill seht is deepening into night; partly to the fact that some of the best-known species frequent ruined buildings, while others haunt the deepest solitudes of woods; but, no doubt, chiefly to the cry of some of the species, hollow end lugubrious, but loud and startling, heard during the hours of darkness, and often by the lonely wanderer. It is evidently from this cry that the name owl is derived, as well as many of its synonyms in other languages, and of the names appropriated in different countries to particular species, in most of which the sound oo or ow is predominant, with great variety of ascom pauying consonants. litany of-the owls have also another soul very different cry, which has gained for one of them the appellation screech owl, and to which, probably, the Latin mume stria and some other names are to be referred.