Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/770

756 OWL PARROT OWOSSO America, Europe, and Asia, coming within the United States as far as Georgia in the winter ; it hunts in the daytime and at morning and evening twilight ; of rapid and powerful flight, it strikes ducks, grouse, pigeons, &c., on the wing like a falcon, and seizes hares, squirrels, and rats from the ground, and fish from the shallows ; from its color it is seen with diffi- culty amid the rocks and snow in its favorite haunts. In the genus surnia (Dum.) the form is stout, hut larger and more hawk-like; the wings and tail are long, and the legs rather short. The hawk or day owl (S. ulula, Bonap.) is 16 to 17 in. long, with an alar extent of 33 ; the upper parts are sooty brown, with white spots on the shoulders; throat white, with dark hrown stripes ; hrown spot on each side of breast; beneath with transverse lines of pale ashy brown ; quills and tail brown, with numerous white bands; bill pale yellow. It is found in the northern regions of both hemi- spheres, in this country rarely going as far south Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula). as Pennsylvania ; it is common in the fur coun- tries, where it is often seen hunting by day, approaching the camps with great boldness. In summer it feeds on squirrels, mice, and insects, and in winter principally on the ptar- migan and grouse. This bird approximates to the falcons in its bold and diurnal habits, and in the absence of facial disk and ear tufts, smaller size of the head, smaller eyes, and less developed ears ; its eyes are adapted for the dim light of snow-clad and arctic regions. OWL PARROT, a singular bird of the cocka- too family, of the genus strigops (Gray), found in New Zealand. In the only species described (S. habroptilus, Gray), the bill is high and short, grooved on the sides, with much curved culmen, acute tip, dentated lateral margins, and base covered by hair-like feathers; the wings are short and rounded, the fifth and sixth quills equal and longest ; tail moderate, weak, much rounded, and each feather pointed with the shaft projecting ; tarsi short and robust, cov- ered with rounded scales ; claws long, strong, and slightly curved. This is the Icalcapo or night parrot of the natives ; it is about 2 ft. Owl Parrot (Strigops habroptilus). in length, of a dirty green color, with black transverse bands and brownish and yellowish spots ; bill yellowish white. It has the general form of a parrot, with the facial expression, nocturnal habits, and noiseless flight of the owls; it lives in holes which it digs in the ground at the roots of trees ; it is solitary, rarely seen, preferring moist and dark woods, and keeps chiefly on the ground, where its tracks are said to resemble those made by the human foot ; its food consists of the roots of ferns and the outer covering of the New Zea- land flax (phormium tenax) ; it breeds in Feb- ruary, laying two or three eggs ; the voice is a hoarse croak. According to the natives, these birds assemble in the winter in caves in large numbers, dispersing again in the spring with a great noise ; their flesh is white and is con- sidered good eating. For an account of its habits see " Proceedings of the Zoological So- ciety of London" (1852). O^OSSO, a city of Shiawassee co., Michigan, on the Shiawassee river, at the junction of the Detroit and Milwaukee and the Jackson, Lan- sing, and Saginaw railroads, 75 m. N. W. of Detroit, and 25 m. N. E. of Lansing; pop. in 1870, 2,065; in 1874, 2,448. It is handsomely laid out, with streets crossing each other at right angles, and contains some fine residences. There are a saw mill, two grist mills, a plaster mill, two founderies and machine shops, two planing mills, an axe-helve factory, a chair fac- tory, two cabinet factories, a brewery, a pump factory, a boot and shoe factory, a tile factory, four carriage and wagon factories, two brick yards, a marble yard, two wheat elevators, and a national bank. The city contains a mineral spring and bathing house, six hotels, a union school house costing $46,000, two weekly news-