168 NEW YORK ‘ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: 
glaciers. During the ensuing age, as the ice disappeared north- 
ward, the four groups, Class B, accompanied or closely followed 
it, and to-day they are at home in the Arctic regions. One or 
two species in some of the other genera have also become adapted 
to a boreal life. 
Although the two genera, Class C, are peculiar to this hemis- 
phere, yet they are only slightly differentiated—the burrowing 
owls (Speotyto), from the Athene group of the Old World, and 
the tiny elf owls (Micropallas), from the pygmy owls—the cos- 
mopolitan Glaucidium. 
As intrusive Strigine elements from the Southeast and South- 
west, the Florida and western burrowing owls are of exceptional 
interest. No owls seem, even accidentally, to have entered this 
Region by way of Greenland, as birds occasionally do; although 
the snowy owl has been caught alive seven hundred miles out 
at sea, and both the American hawk owl and the screech owl are 
recorded from England. The only Old World forms which are 
known to have entered the Nearctic Region during historical 
times, are the lapp owl and the hawk owl, both being accidental 
visitors to Alaska. 
Having thus briefly reviewed the North American owls as a 
whole, we shall consider each group more in detail. 
In the New York Zoological Park there have been on exhibition 
nine out of the twelve genera of Nearctic Owls, no living speci- 
mens of the great gray, American hawk or elf owls having as vet 
been obtained. 
GROUP I.—BARN OWLS, Strix. 
The single genus of the Barn Owls is set apart from all others 
by differences in structure and appearance sufficient to be desig- 
nated as a separate family. 
The American Barn Owl, Strix pratincola Bonap., is the 
sole representative of this genus in North America. Since its iso- 
lation from the European Barn Owl, it has increased considerably 
in size and is lighter in color. 
Of all the owls these are the most peculiar looking, as the 
common name of “monkey-faced owl” suggests. In color they are 
very beautiful, with gray and golden-buff upper parts, speckled 
finely with black and white. Beneath they are white or buff, 
sprinkled with round dots. The face is white and the heart-shaped 
facial disk is yellowish-brown. “Golden Owl” is an excellent name 
for this bird. 
