STRIX FLAMMEA. 



THE COMMOIJ SCREECH-OWL, OR BARN OWL. 



Bill yellowish-white ; toes with four scutella, claws 

 blackish-grey ; the general colour of the upper parts 

 light reddish-yellow, variegated with minutely mottled 

 ash-grey, and small black and whitish spots ; facial disks 

 and lower parts white, the latter with small dusky 

 spots. Young of the same colours, darker above. 



Male. — The Barn Owl is, in respect to colouring, 

 one of the most beautiful birds of the family to which 

 it belongs, and in form might be said to be elegant, 

 Avere it not for the disproportionate size of its head. 

 The proportions are those given in the generic charac- 

 ter, and there is nothing specifically remarkable in the 

 texture of the plumage. 



The oesophagus, which is as already described, has a 

 length of four and a half inches. The stomach, when 

 collapsed, is an inch and a quarter in its greatest dia- 

 meter ; when distended, three inches. In the latter 

 state it is nearly orbicular, but compressed ; the largest 

 of the two central tendons is eight- twelfths across. 

 The cardiac and pyloric orifices are nearly a quarter of 

 an inch apart ; the latter is encircled with a rim, which 

 renders its diameter extremely smalk The intestine 

 immediately below the pylorus has a diameter of four 

 and a half twelfths, and continues of that width for 



