strig (strig)

t.; pret. and pp. strigged, ppr. strigging. [ striga (str i'gä), n.; pl. strigæ (-jē). [NL., L striga, a swath, furrow, Striges (strī'jēz), n. pl. [NL., sense, as a suborder of Raptores; the nocturnal birds of prey. The physiognomy is peculiar by reason of the lateral expansion, lengthwise contraction, and diploic thickening of the skull, which is often asymmetrical. The eyes look forward, not laterally as in other birds, and are set in a peculiar disk of radiated feathers more or le completely formed, the feathers of the front being antrorse and adpre ed, hiding the base of the bill. This is the facial disk, of which some radiating feathers of peculiar shape and texture constitute a ruff. The eyes are large, with peculiarly shaped eyeball, the cor nea being protuberant, and with the sclerotic presenting a figure somewhat like a short acorn in its cup; the iris is capable of great movement, dilating and contracting the pupil more than is usual in birds. The ear-parts are very large, often unlike on opposite sides of the head, provided with a movable external flap, the operculum, sometimes of great extent. The tufts of feathers, or so-called "ears," of many owls are the corni plumes or plum i corns. The bill is peculiar in that the nostrils open at the edge of the cere rather than in its substance, and the tomia are never toothed. There are four toes, of which the outer is versatile and shorter than the inner, with three of its joints together shorter than the fourth joint. The claws are all long, sharp, and curved, and the middle one is sometimes pectinate. The feathers lack aftershafts, and the plumage is peculiarly soft and blended, conferring a noisele flight. The birds have no ambiens muscle, one pair of intrinsic syringeal muscles, a nude oil-gland, long clubbed cæca, short intestines, moderately muscular gizzard, capacious gullet without special crop, a peculiar structure of the tarsometatarsi and shoulder-joint, a manubria ted and double-notched or entire sternum, bas i pterygoid proce es, and spongy max ill opal a tines and lacrymals. The suborder is divided into two families, Strigidæ and Aluconidæ. Nyc thar pages is a synonym. See cuts under barn - owl, braccate, Bubo2, hawk owl, Otus, Nyctala, owl1, snow-owl, and Strix. Strigidæ (strij'i-dē), n. pl. [NL.,