take the form of irregular rosettes, with a centre rather darker in color than the ground color. The animal reaches a total length of seven feet four inches (one specimen), the tail occupying three feet of this. The food seems to consist chiefly of wild sheep, goats, and marmots, and in spite of its large size this cat is little feared by the people of its region. See E. Ingersoll's Life of Mammals (1906); J. H. Baldwin's Large and Small Game of Bengal (1877).

Ourari. See CURARE.

Ouray, city, Colo., co. seat of Ouray co., 400 m. s.w. of Denver, on the Denv. and Rio Gr. R. R. It is a mining centre and summer resort. Alt. 7,700 ft. The mountain scenery of the region is very striking. Gold, silver, copper, and lead occur in the vicinity, and hot medicinal springs are abundant. The principal institutions are the Walsh Library and St. Joseph's Hospital. It was first settled in 1875, and incorporated as a town in 1876 and as a city in 1891. Pop. (1900) 2,196.

Ourique, tn., Alemtejo prov., Portugal, 94 m. s.E. of Lisbon, was the scene, on July 25, 1139, of the defeat of the Moors by Alfonso, which resulted in the formation of the kingdom of Portugal. Pop. (1900) 3,771.

Ouro Preto, tn., prov. Minas

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Geraes, Brazil, 170 m. N.W. of Rio de Janeiro, on Serra de Ouro Preto. Iron, manganese, asbestos, and gold are found near by, and Ouro Preto has a school of mines. Pop. 13,000.

Ouse, riv., Yorkshire, England, flows S.E. to York, where it turns s. to Selby, thence S. E. to Goole, and finally E. till it enters the Trent, with which it forms the Humber. The principal tributaries, besides the two headstreams Ure and Swale, are, on the right, the Nidd, Wharfe, Aire, and Don, and on the left the Derwent. Length, 57 m.; navigable to York. The Aire and Calder Navigation connects near Leeds with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, thus linking Hull with Liverpool.

Ouse, GREAT, riv., England, rises in s.w. Northamptonshire, and flows through Buckingham, Bedford, Huntingdon, Cam

bridge, and Norfolk to the Wash. For the last few miles the main stream is conducted through an artificial channel, the Eau Brink, In the Fen district a great bend is cut off by the Old and New Bedford rivers, 20 m. long, between Earith and a point near Downham Market. The Great Ouse is navigable to Bedford. Length, 160 m.

Ouseley, SIR FREDERICK ARTHUR GORE (1825-89), English musical composer, chiefly of sacred music, was born in London and became (1856) vicar of St. Michael's, Tenbury. In 1855 he was appointed professor of music at Oxford. He was the author of several important treatises on music, edited various collections of sacred music, and took a high place as a musical littérateur. The whole of his fortune was devoted to the endowment of St. Michael's College, Tenbury, for the training of choristers, and to this college he left his valuable musical library.

Outcrop, of a rock or system of rocks, is that area of the surface of the ground which they Occupy or underlie. A map of

Outcrop-Plan and Section.

the 'solid' geology shows the outcrops as they would be exposed were the drift entirely stripped

away.

Outposts

Outlawry, a term meaning putting one beyond the protection of the law of the land by a regular process. It is now almost unknown in civil cases and is rare in criminal cases, but it was in common use until about the middle of the thirteenth century. Under the early English law it was the duty of any one who met an outlaw to kill or capture him. The process against him read in Latin, 'Let him bear the wolf's head,' and indicated, of course, that he had no more standing than a wild animal. An outlaw's lands and chattels were forfeitable to the crown in Great Britain if he was guilty of treason or felony; and his chattels, if outlawed for misdemeanor. Formerly an outlaw's blood was said to be 'corrupt,' and his children could not inherit or succeed him in an office or franchise. This has been abolished, but the English statutes are still in force, although no cases are reported for a number of years. The process has not been used in the United States since the Revolution. The popular application of this name to a notorious criminal. who continues his crimes in deñance of the state, is not technically correct.

Outposts are detachments thrown out by bodies of troops when halted to secure them from surprise and to allow of their taking rest in safety. Generally the outpost consists of from onesixth to one-seventh of the whole force, depending upon the proximity and activity of the enemy, the nature of the terrain, the efficiency of the cavalry screen, etc. The outposts of a large force consists of pickets, supports, and a reserve. The pickets are not more than 400 yards distant from the support in the case of infantry, and in the case of cavalry some 600 yards. They are bodies of from twenty-five to a hundred men in the infantry, or from twenty to thirty men in the cavalry, and each picket furnishes a certain number of sentinels or vedettes. Infantr supports may be placed from 400 to 800 yards in rear of their pickets; cavalry supports may be rather distant. The reserve is generally made as strong as the pickets and supports taken together.

more

Patrols are largely used in connection with outposts. Those used for this purpose are small parties of two under a non-commissioned officer, sometimes accompanied by an officer. The sentries or vedettes are visited frequently by day and by night by patrols from their pickets to secure their vigifance; reconnoitring patrols supplement the observation of the

Outram

stationary sentries by pushing outwards towards the enemy to observe his movements and watch for his approach; and patrols are also used to communicate between the different parts of the outposts. The line occupied by the sentries is usually drawn in at night, but advantage is taken of the ground so as to get the sky line in front. Easy ways of communication with the picket must also be provided. The outposts would be stronger at probable points of approach of the enemy, such as on roads leading to the front, and might be weakened where an impassable obstacle protected the front.

Outram, SIR JAMES (1803-63), British political agent, born in Derbyshire; entered the service of the East India Company as a cadet in 1819; served in Afghanistan, and was present at the capture of Ghazni in 1839. Appointed chief commissioner of Oudh, he joined, in 1857, the Persian expedition. During the mutiny he successfully resisted the rebels at the Alumbagh, and accompanied Havelock as a volunteer to the relief of Lucknow. For his services he received a baronetcy. His chivalry and integrity won for him the title of the 'Bayard of India.' See Life by Sir F. J. Goldsmid (1880) and by Captain Trotter (1903).

Outrigger. See ROWING.

Ouzel. See DIPPER and RINGOUZEL. The name ouzel-cock is applied by Shakespeare to the blackbird.

Ovaherero, Bantu race of S. Africa, closely related to the Ovampo. They are the 'Cattle Damaras' or 'Damaras' of the early English writers. They are a sturdy, warlike nation, who have long m intained a deadly struggle with the Namaquas, and were in open revolt against the German authorities in 1904-6. A racial peculiarity is their dislike of salt. Many are outwardly Christians. They number about 80,000. See Stow, The Native Races of South Africa, 1905.

Ovampo, or OVAMBO, an African people who, with the kindred Ovaherero, constitute the southwestern division of the Bantu family, in which the prefix ova ('people') corres onds to the wa, ba, ama of the other divisions. Their territory stretches from the Cunene to about 20° s. They number about 100,000, and are agriculturists. Physically they are a fine race-tall, robust, with regular features and bright, intelligent expression. See Stow, The Native Races of South Africa, 1905.

Ovar, fishing centre, Beira prov., Portugal, at N. end of Aveiro lagoon, 20 m. s. of Oporto. Pop. (1900) 10,582.

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Ovary, the ovum or egg-producing organ. The adult human ovaries are somewhat almondshaped bodies, about an inch and a half in length, each attached by ligaments both to the uterus and to a Fallopian tube. They may be absent, or never develop functionally. They are sometimes the sites of cysts or tumors, or become inflamed or displaced. In serious cases of disease the ovaries are sometimes removed

by operation (ovariotomy). The removal of one ovary does not prevent subsequent pregnancy, provided the remaining ovary is healthy.

Comparative. - In mammals generally the ovary displays essentially the same structure as in man, but in other vertebrates it is histologically simpler. Thus there are no prominent Graafian follicles, as in mammals. While in the mammal the ovary is confined to the posterior region of the body, in the lower vertebrates it extends throughout the greater party of the body cavity. Where the eggs are of large size in vertebrates one ovary tends to predominate at the expense of the other. This is especially the case with birds, where the right ovary is completely aborted. As regards invertebrates, all the cells of the ovary were originally equivalent, but in each group one outstrips the rest and becomes the actual ovum, while the others are sacrificed to it, forming follicular cells, or yolk cells, whose function is to feed the growing ovum. In such forms as flukes and turbellaria the ovary at an early stage becomes differentiated into two parts, of which one forms the so-called yolk organ, producing yolk cells, and the other the ovary proper, producing ova.

In botany, the ovary is the lower part of the pistil of a flower. It is really the hollow of a carpel, and it is the organ which contains the ovules, or as yet unfertilized seeds. See FLOWER.

Ovation, the honors accorded at ancient Rome to a successful general whose achievements were not held worthy of a regular triumph. The general entered the city on foot, not in a chariot; wearing only a magistrate's ordinary robe, not the gold-embroidered garment of the triumph; and was crowned with a wreath of myrtle, not laurel. The senate did not head his procession, and a sheep, not a bull, was the sacrifice.

Oven, an enclosed chamber for bread-baking and cooking generally. It requires to be equably heated, and may be either internally or externally fired. The original type of oven is of the former kind, and consists of an

Oven-bird

arched stone or brick chamber, in which a wood fire is burned until the walls are thoroughly hot. The ashes are then raked out and the dough or other food inserted and the door closed: the heat stored in the walls is sufficient to do the baking. This pattern has been improved by making the fire grate external, by burning coal, charcoal or coke, and allowing the products of combustion to pass through the oven till it is sufficiently heated, when dampers are closed and the heat maintained by passing the hot gases through flues surrounding the oven. Other modern ovens are entirely heated by external flues, by superheated steam, or by coal, and are more suited for continuous working, the bread being charged and moved by a 'draw-plate' or movable false bottom instead of the oldfashioned narrow shovel. Brick and stone are the materials most suited for bakers' ovens, and iron for general cooking purposes. To obtain regular results, the temperature should be indicated by a pyrometer. Biscuits and crackers and some kinds of confectionery are baked on endless bands that are slowly wound through the oven. For coke ovens see COKE.

Oven-bird. In the United States, the golden crowned 'thrush,' one of the wood-warblers (Seiurus aurocapillus). More distinctly a passerine bird peculiar to S. America, of which several species constitute the dendrocolaptine genus Furnarius. The best-known species is the red ovenbird (F. rufus), found in Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, whose

Overbeck

mud to prevent cracking; the structure may weigh from eight to nine pounds. The birds have loud, ringing voices; both sexes incubate, and remain paired throughout the year, although only one brood is reared. There are a number of species, and it is stated that some do not build the characteristic oven. See W. H. Hudson's Naturalist in La Plata (1892).

Overbeck, JOHANN FRIEDRICH (1789-1869), German painter, born at Lübeck. After four years' study at Vienna he went to Rome, where with Von Schadow, Cornelius, Veit, and Schnorr, he developed the method which, with its devotional expression and banishment of mere physical beauty as such, procured for them the name of 'Nazarenes.' Two frescoes dealing with the life of Joseph are at Berlin; but his greatest work in fresco is the Vision of St. Francis, at Assisi. His oil paintings, on the whole, possess less merit; but the delicacy of feeling which marks his work appears to perfection in his water-color drawings and cartoons on religious subjects. His name is inseparably connected with the revival of Roman Catholic art. See Lives by Atkinson (Great Artists Series, 1882), and Howitt (1886).

Overbrook, vil., Montgomery co., Pa., 5 m. N.w. of Philadel phia, on the line which forms the city limits and the county boundary. Here is situated the Theological Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo. Pop. about 400.

Overbury, SIR THOMAS (15811613), English writer, was born at Ilmington, Warwickshire. When Robert Carr became the royal favorite in 1603, Overbury attached himself to his fortunes, and soon shared some of his friend's prosperity, being knighted in 1608. He had considerable literary gifts, and his poem, The Wife (1614), was widely read. He incurred the anger of Lady Essex, and was arrested and confined in the Tower, where he was slowly poisoned. He also wrote Characters (1614), The Remedy of Love (1620), Observations in his Travels (1626), Miscellaneous Works (1756). His Collected Works were edited by E. F. Rimbault (1856).

Over Darwen. See DARWEN. Overijssel, prov., Netherlands, between Zuyder Zee and Prussian provinces Hanover and Westphalía. The surface is generally heaths and moors in E., and agricultural in w. Dairying, fishing, cotton manufacture, and brickmaking are chief industries. Cap. Zwolle. Area, 1,292 sq. m. Pop. (1901) 338,408.

Overseers. See POOR LAW ADMINISTRATION.

Overstone, SAMUEL JONES LOYD, BARON (1796-1883), Welsh

124

banker and authority on finance. He sat in the House of Commons for Hythe (1819-26); but his influence was exercised directly over successive chancellors of the Exchequer. The Bank Charter Act of 1844, which determined the constitution of the Bank of England, in the main carried out his ideas. In 1860 he was raised to the peerage. He was the author of Tracts and other Publications on Metallic and Paper Currency (ed. M'Culloch, 1858).

Overture, a species of musical composition which for a considerable period existed only in the form of a short instrumental introduction to an operatic work. Lully was the first to develop the overture to dimensions of importance, and the form originated by him was still further enlarged by Purcell, Handel, and others. Gluck was the earliest of the operatic composers who wrote the overture în a form which portrays the dramatic action of the work it precedes; in overtures belonging to this class that to Mozart's Magic Flute is second only to the greatest of all -viz. Beethoven's Leonore No. 3. Some operatic overtures consist entirely of subject-matter contained in the following work; in this form Weber and Wagner have left unrivalled examples. The title is also given to orchestral productions written solely for concert use.

Ovid (43 B.C. to 17 A.D.), whose full name was Publius Ovidius Naso, Latin poet, born at Sulmo in the Apennines. He was ap pointed one of the centumviri judges who decided civil and some criminal cases), afterward one of the decemviri, or ten presidents of that body. He was on terms of intimacy with the contemporary poets Propertius and Tibullus, was acquainted with Horace, and also enjoyed the favor of the Emperor Augustus, until, for some

reason

which has never been discovered, he was suddenly banished in 9 A.D to Tomi on the Black Sea, near the mouth of the Danube. It is generally believed that his exile was connected with some love intrigue of the imperial family. He remained at Tomi until his death. Ovid is much the most voluminous of the Latin poets, his extant works containing over 33,000 hexameter or elegiac lines. These works are: Heroides, a series of letters which purport to be sent from and to famous pairs of lovers in Greek story; Amores, short love poems of a somewhat licentious character; Ars Amatoria, or Art of Love, which instructs the Roman lover in the pursuit of his mistress; Metamorphoses, a poem which recounts all the tales of

Oviedo y Valdés

mythology which involve a transformation in any of the characters; Fasti (unfinished), or Calendar, which describes the Roman festivals for each month; and Tristia and Epistolæ ex Ponto, which relate his miseries at Tomi, and contain many appeals to friends at Rome and the emperor. All these poems, except the Metamorphoses (which consists of hexameters), are written in the elegiac metre; and it is as the supreme master of that metre, and as a versifier rather than as a poet, that Ovid has won immortality. Yet even as a writer of elegiacs he errs on the side of excessive smoothness and polish; and his hexameters, in their monotony and smooth, unbroken flow, compare unfavorably with the strong and varied measure of Virgil. Perhaps his best work is to be found in the Amores. Editions of text by Merkel (1884-9), Palmer and Edwards (in Postgate's Corpus Poetarum Latinorum, 1894); with notes, Amores, Ars Amatoria, by Williams (1884); Fasti, by Hallam (1881); Heroides, by Shuckburgh (1879); Metamorphoses, by Haupt, Koen, and Müller (1881-5); Tristia, by Owen (1889); and by Arden (1821); Ex Ponto, by Güthling (1886). See A. J. Church's Ovid (1876).

Oviedo. (1.) Province, N. Spain, coextensive with ancient kingdom of Asturias, is a narrow, mountainous country on the Bay of Biscay. Mining is being rapidly developed; industry of all sorts is extremely active, and the slopes and valleys yield stock, timber, and agricultural products. The fishing is very good. Area, 4,091 sq. m. Pop. (1900) 627,069. (2.) City, cap. of prov. of same name, Spain, 16 m. from Biscay coast. Ancient capital of Gothic reconquest, with early cathedral, where some of the kings of Asturias are buried. It has a university, a national factory of arms, and metallurgical industries. Pop. (1900) 48,103.

Oviedo y Valdés, GONZALO FERNANDEZ DE (1478-1557), Spanish historian, was born at Madrid. He was at the Spanish Court when Columbus returned (1493) from his first voyage to America, and subsequently lived for many years in the West Indies. His principal work is an interesting account of the Spanish conquest of America and a description of the New World. The Sumario of the work, which was written for Charles v., was published in 1525. The Historia de las Indias, as a complete work, first appeared in 1535; best later edition by Amador de los Rios (1851-55). It was translated into English as History of the West Indies (1555). His Quinquagenas

Oviparous

de la Nobleza de España was published by the Royal Academy of History at Madrid in 1880 sqq.

Oviparous, a term formerly used to designate animals which lay eggs, in contradistinction to the viviparous forms, which give birth to living young. But all animals develop from eggs, and the question whether these hatch within the body of the mother or outside it has no real importance. Ovoca. See AVOCA.

Ovule, a name applied to the small bodies attached to the placenta within the ovary of a flower. When fertilized they become transformed into seeds. In coniferous plants and in cycads the ovules are not contained in an ovary, but are naked in the axils or on the margins of metamorphosed leaves. The essential part of the ovule is the nucleus,

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Owari, or BISHIU, old prov., Hondo, Japan, with a reputation for blue and white porcelain. Pottery was first made in Japan, at Seto in this province. Cap. Nagoya.

Owatonna, city, Minn., Co. seat of Steele co., 63 m. s. of Minneapolis, is on the Straight R., and on the Chi., Mil. and St. P., the Chi. and N.W., and the Chi., R. I. and Pac. R. Rs. It possesses a public library, two opera houses, city hospital, and a state school for dependent and neglected children. Other educational institutions are Pillsbury and Sacred Heart academies, and a business college. There are three parks. The chief manufactures are flour, foundry and machine shop products, canned goods, butter-tubs, churns, seeders, jewelry, patent medicines, farm tools, soap, wagons and carriages, gasoline engines and automobiles. There is a large agricultural trade. The city is in the centre of the Minnesota dairy district. It was settled in 1853, and the present charter was granted in 1870. Pop. (1905) 5,561.

Owego, vil., N. Y., co. seat of Tioga co., 20 m. w. of Binghamton and 28 m. E. of Elmira, at the junction of Owego Creek with the Susquehanna R., and on the Erie, the Leh. Val., and the D., L. and W. R. Rs. Its fine site has made it an attractive place of residence and a summer resort. Its most noteworthy features of interest are the court house, Owego Free Academy, and the Coburn Free Library, which has over 8,000 volumes. There are manufactures of steel bridges, wagons, silk gloves, mica chimneys, harness, leather goods, cigars, and pianos. Owego has a large lumber trade and a number of creameries. It was settled in 1785 and incorporated in 1827. An Indian village on its site was destroyed by Gen. Clinton in 1779. Pop. (1905) 5,010.

Owen, JOHN (?1560-1622), Welsh epigrammatist, born at Llanarmon, Carnarvonshire; held scholastic appointments at Trelleck in Monmouthshire, and at Warwick. He achieved a wide reputation for his Latin epigrams. The first collection appeared in 1606; the best editon of the complete series is that of Renouard (1794).

Owen, JOHN (1616-83), English Puritan theologian, was born at Stadhampton, Oxfordshire, and became incumbent at Fordham, Essex. In 1646 he was transferred to Coggeshall. Becoming chaplain to Cromwell, he was in 1651 appointed dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and vice-chancellor of the university the following year. In 1673 he became minister of a congregation in Leadenhall Street, London. Owen declined a call

Owen

to a church in Boston, Mass., in 1663 and in 1665, and an invitation to the presidency of Harvard College in 1670. His learning was great, his controversial gifts remarkable; but he was deficient in spiritual insight, and his English is prolix, mazy, and without distinction. His work on the Epistle to the Hebrews is regarded as his best production, and his Doctrine of Justification by Faith (1677) still finds readers. The severe epithet, a continent of mud,' applied to his works by Robert Hall, is, on the whole, very appropriate. See W. Orme's Memoirs (1820), and the collected edition of his Works, with Life by A. Thomson (1850-5).

Owen, SIR RICHARD (1804-92), English zoologist, was born at Lancaster. He became curator of the Royal College of Surgeons, and (1836) professor of comparative anatomy. In 1856 he was appointed superintendent of the natural history department of the British Museum, à post which he retained until 1883. Owen may be regarded as the successor of Cuvier, for he worked chiefly at comparative anatomy, both in living and in fossil forms. His first work was the Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Physiological Series of Comparative Anatomy (1833-40). Like Cuvier, from his detailed studies of the hard parts of living organisms he was able, often with great success, to reconstruct fossil forms from their fragmentary remains in the rocks, such as the dinosaurs, the extinct wingless birds of New Zealand, etc. Owen also, in his Anatomy and Physiology of the Vertebrates (1866-68), clearly pointed out for the first time the distinction between homology and analogy; and from the facts of homology he deduced a doctrine of 'archetypes' from which he believed existing forms had been derived. In several instances, Owen's work was vitiated by his neglect of embryology, a science which in his time was rapidly rising in importance. Although he survived Darwin by ten years, he fully realized that the work of the latter had revolutionized natural science. See Life, by Richard Owen (1894).

never

Owen, ROBERT (1771-1858), Welsh socialist and philanthropist, born at Newtown Montgomeryshire. In 1794 he commenced business for himself in cotton-twist factory, and few years later purchased a factory at New Lanark, Lanarkshire. There he employed no children under ten, and established a ten and a half hours' working-day for adults. But his greatest innovation was the provision of schools, and especially of infant

Owen

schools, of which he was the pioneer in the United Kingdom. His great industrial success at least partially silenced his critics, and he became a man of weight when social questions were under discussion. But he offended many by indiscreet utterances on religion; and his socialistic settlements, both in Britain and in America, were all unsuccessful. He came to the U. S. in 1824 and founded a community at New Harmony, Indiana, but this proving a failure, he went four years later to Mexico with the same purpose in view, and meeting with discouragement there also, shortly after returned to England. Meantime he was founding all over Great Britain co-operative societies to eliminate the middleman. He expounded his views in A New View of Society (1813-16), Book of the New Moral World (1834-41), and Revolution in the Mind" and Practice of the Human Race (1849). See Life, written by himself (1857); Threading my Way, by his son, R. D. Owen (1874); and Life, by A. J. Booth (1869).

Owen, ROBERT DALE (180177), American social reformer, son of Robert Owen (q.v.), was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and was educated at home, and in Switzerland. He accompanied his father to the U. S. in 1825, and assisted him in the attempt to establish a co-operative settlement at New Harmony, Ind. This failing, he returned to England, and after a short sojourn there, again visited the U. S. in 1827, took

out naturalization papers, and from 1828 to 1832 edited in New York city the Free Inquirer, a weekly socialistic and agnostic periodical. He then removed to New Harmony, Ind., and served in the Indiana legislature (1835-38), obtaining a part of the state's share of U. S. surplus revenue for the public schools. From 1843 to 1847 he was U. S. representative from Indiana, and in that capacity secured the passage of a resolution relating to the occupation of Oregon, which was afterward effective in settling the Northwestern boundary question. He was prominent in the organization of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and became one of its regents. During 1850-1 he was busy in Indiana, assisting in the revision of the state's constitution, and, as a member of the legislature, obtaining property rights for married women and widows. From 1853 to 1858 he was successively U. S. chargé d'affaires and minister at Naples. He was active during the Civil War in connection with auditing claims for ordnance and ordnance stores, and in investigating the condition of the newly liberated

126

slaves, Lincoln having been much influenced in his determination to declare their emancipation by an open letter from Owen. He was a believer in, and an active promoter of, spiritualism. His published works include Outline of the System of Education at New Lanark (1824), Moral Physiology (1831), Discussion with Origen Bachelor on the Personality of God and the Authority of the Bible (1832), Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World (1859), The Wrong of Slavery (1864), and Threading My Way (1874), an account of his early struggles.

Owen Glendower. See GLENDOWER.

Owens, JOHN (1790-184€), English merchant, born in Manchester; became partner in his father's cotton business (1817). He left a large fortune to found Owens College, Manchester, free from all religious and sectarian tests. See VICTORIA UNIVERSITY.

Owensboro, city, Ky., co. seat of Daviess co., is located on the s. bk. of the Ohio R. and on the Louisv. and Nash., the Louisv., Henderson and St. L., and the Ill. Cent. R. Rs., 30 m. S.E. of Evansville, Ind., and 80 m. w.s.w. of Louisville. Steamboats connect it with other river ports. It has a fine U. S. Government building, jail, a public school library, a county court house and two parks. Owensboro Female College (nonsectarian) and St. Francis Academy are located here. It is the centre of a farming and stockraising region, with forests. In the surrounding districts are oil and mineral lands. There is a large trade in coal, iron, zinc, lead, clay, and stone. There are manufactures of lumber, wagons, sewer pipe, furniture, bricks, buggies, and wheels. It is one of the largest leaf and strip tobacco markets in the U. S., has several whiskey and brandy distilleries, a cellulose factory, mill machinery, and electrical supply plants. It owns and operates a municipal electric light plant and is constructing munícipal water-works. It was incorporated in 1866 and its present charter was granted in 1893. Pop. (1903) 13,822. Loc. est. (1905) 20,124.

Owens College. See VICTORIA UNIVERSITY.

Owen Sound, tn. Ont., Canada, co. seat of Grey co., and port of entry, 100 m. N.w. of Toronto, on Georgian Bay, at the mouth_of Sydenham R., and on the Gr. Trunk and the Can. Pac. R. Rs. The court house and town hall are fine buildings. Owing to its attractive scenery it is a favorite summer resort. Its harbor, one of the best on Lake Huron, its water-power, and adjacent lumber and farming districts have developed important commercial inter

Owl

ests. Vessels of the largest capacity engaged in the grain and lumber trade enter its harbor. It manufactures farm tools, mill machinery, turbine water-wheels, engines, sewing-machines, brick, tiles, leather, cement, and furniture. It has grain elevators, flour mills, lumber mills, foundries, canning and fruit-packing plants, and builds boats. Pop. (1901) 8,777.

Owl, a group of mostly nocturnal birds of prey, whose systematic position is a matter of some difficulty. Formerly placed near the diurnal birds of prey, they are now included by Gadow in the Coraciiformes as the suborder Striges, being placed near the nightjars. The head is large and the neck thin, the large eyes are surrounded by a characteristic radiating disc of feathers, and there may be also a tuft of feathers above them, forming the so-called 'ears' or horns. The ear-opening is large, and is prolonged into a membrane recalling the external ear of mammals. The beak is rather short, but stout and hooked. The plumage is very soft and fluffy, which gives the birds their noiseless flight. The feathers are without an after-shaft, and usually cover both feet and toes. The claws are strong and sharp, and the fourth toe is reversible. The food of most species consists of small mammals, reptiles, fish, and insects, which, if small, are swallowed whole, the indigestible residue, such as bones, feathers, hairs, etc., being cast up in the form of pellets. Owls are among the farmer's best friends in all countries, as their prey consists in the main of the mice, lemmings, and the like, which, if unchecked, will speedily overrun and destroy his fields and orchards, and also of insects injurious to crops. The sexes resemble each other. Though most species are dazzled by daylight, the hawk owls fly in the full glare of the sun. The majority live in trees, but some species lay their eggs in clefts of rocks, in buildings, or even in holes in the ground. The eggs are always nearly orbicular and white in color, while the young at hatching are helpless and covered with down. Some owls hoot, others howl or produce a noise like laughter. These cries, combined with the birds' nocturnal habits and weird appearance, have made the owls objects of superstition over the whole globe. Owls are cosmopolitan, some species enjoying an extraordinarily wide distribu

tion.

The common Europe an, and especially the British, owls are those most often referred to in