of a Type to LiniKBan Genera. 101 



ence to that number. Turning thereto we further read/' Ha- 

 bitat in sylvis frequens per Suecjam -," and then, coming to the 

 second edition of the 'Fauna^ (1761), we have (p. 26) : — 



"77. Strix Stridula [ ], Fn. 55.'' 



— this being Linnseus's mode of quoting the former edition of 

 his work, and one more addition : — 



" Svecis Skrik Uggla.'" 



Now no one can doubt what Linnseus meant by this bird. 

 His diagnosis may not be the most accurate ; but the " Skrik 

 Uggla'^ of the Swedes, the Owl which is common in the 

 forests throughout Sweden — that is, except in the then little- 

 known north of that country — is just as surely our Brown or 

 Tawny Owl as Brisson's '' Chathuant " is. Thus the last, or 

 Brisson's type of Sirix, is also the S. stridula of Linnseus ; for 

 I need not say that in both of the subsequent editions of the 

 ' Systema Naturse ' (10th and 12th) the same species retains 

 that name ; but I must add that if there be any truth in the 

 opinions I have above advanced, this, and this only, can be 

 interpreted as the Linnsean type of the genus Strix ; for, as 

 Linnseus himself rightly states, it is emphatically the '' Strix " 

 of Gesner, of Aldrovandus, of Willughby, and of Ray. 

 Finally, to clinch the whole matter, Linnseus himself asserts 

 in the 12th edition that it is the " Strix " of Brisson. 



In rectifying my error, I wish it were possible for me to prove 

 as clearly what the S. aluco of Linnseus really was ; but the 

 matter does not very much signify, and it will be unnecessary 

 for me here to repeat each step of the investigation. A very 

 little trouble will show that this species is founded upon 

 an Owl which, he tells us (CElandska och Gothlandska Resa, 

 p. 69), he, on the 5th of June, 1741, had an opportunity of 

 describing at the woodman's ijios Skogwachtaren) at Ahrby, 

 in the south of ffiland ; and the description Avhich he there 

 gives is but a briefer form of that which appeared five years 

 afterwards in the 'Fauna.^ I express no very decided opinion ; 

 but my impression is that the bird was most likely a Barn- 

 Owl*, a species known to be rare in Sweden and its islands, 



* He writes " Remiges 1. 2. 3. sensim breviores." Now this is not ab- 

 sohitely true of the Barn-Owl, wherein the second primary is longer than 



