BARN OWL. 



293 



the game preserver may be as fully alive to the equally valuable 

 services of the woodland species.* 



Though not the most numerous, this is the best known 

 of all the Owls, probably from the fact of its taking up its 

 abode in close proximity to the haunts of man and frequenting 

 the towers of churches, whence it has acquired a kind of 

 ghostly fame. 



The Barn Owl is occasionally observed as an immigrant 

 on the coast in autumn from the Continent, but in limited 

 numbers. It has been noticed at sea and several were 

 seen, and two taken alive, tired out, at Easington, on 17th 

 October 1891 ; whilst in the Migration Reports there 

 are entries recording its appearance at east coast Light 

 stations. I have noted its occurrence at Flamborough and 

 Redcar in October and November, and in the latter month, 

 in 1902, one was captured alive in a house on the sea-front, 

 which it had entered during the night. These migrants are 

 usually of a much darker and redder plumage than our 

 resident birds, and similar to the description given of Con- 

 tinental examples. In the collection of the late Edward 

 Tindall of Knapton Hall is a fine variety obtained at Hackness, 

 near Scarborough, in December 1876. This specimen has the 

 back and wings of a rich chestnut-brown, the wings shaded 

 with mouse colour, the usual black spots being absent ; the 

 facial disks a light buff radiated with chestnut ; the breast 



* No apology is needed for introducing the following analysis of 

 the castings of our three most abundant species, given at p. 148 of 

 Newton's Yarrell. Such evidence cannot be too widely disseminated 

 or too well known. 



