154 BRITISH BIRDS. 
STRIX ALUCO. 
WOOD-OWL. 
(Pate 6.) 
Strix strix, Briss. Orn. i. p. 500 (1760, rufous form). 
Strix ulula, Briss. Orn. i. p. 507 (1760, grey form). 
Strix stridula, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 135 (1766, rufous form), 
Strix ulula, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 133 (1766, grey form). 
Strix aluco, Gerini, Orn. Meth. Dig. i. p. 90, pl. Ixxxxiv. (1767); et auctorum 
plurimorum—Latham,Pallas, Vieillot, Naumann, Temminck, Sundevall, (Newton), 
(Gould), (Gray), (Bonaparte), Schlegel, (Strickland), (Sharpe), &c., nec Linneus. 
Strix sylvestris, Scop. Ann. I. Hist. Nat. p. 21 (1769). 
Strix sylvatica, Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. vii. pt. 1, p. 253 (1809). 
Syrnium ululans, Sav. Syst. Ois. de l Egypte, p. 52 (1810). 
Syrnium stridulum (Linn.), Steph. Shaw’s Gen. Zool. xiii. pt. 2, p. 62 (1826). 
Syrnium aluco (Linn.), apud Bote, Isis, 1828, p. 315. 
Ulula stridula (Linn.), Selby, Ill. Brit. Orn. i. p. 102 (1833). 
Aluco stridulus (Linn.), Macgill. Rapac. B. of G. Brit. p. 867 (1836). 
Ulula aluco (Linn.), apud Keys. § Blas. Wirb, Eur. p. 148 (1840). 
Linnzeus somewhat hesitatingly separated the grey form of the Wood- 
Owl from the rufous form of this species, naming the former Stria stridula 
and the latter Strix ulula. Latham, Tunstall, Pennant, and others con- 
sidered them distinct under these Latin names, calling them the Brown 
Owl and the Tawny Owl; but subsequent writers for the most part have 
united them. Gmelin and Pallas, naturally considering it impossible that 
Linneus could have been unacquainted with the Short-eared Owl, 
applied the name of Strix ulula to that bird. Bonaparte, Gray, Newton, 
Sharpe, and Dresser, in defiance of the careful description in the ‘ Fauna 
Suecica,’ and regardless of the fact that Linnzus described the Hawk Owl 
as Strix funerea, inhabiting both Europe and America, adopt the startling 
proposition that Linnzus intended to describe the European Hawk Owl 
under the name of Strix ulula. 
Although Linnzeus clearly gives two names to the Wood-Owl, by far 
the greater number of ornithologists have selected for that species a third 
Linnean name, Séria aluco, which most likely belongs to the Barn-Owl, 
though the evidence is not very satisfactory. 
The Tawny Owl is not so common in Britain as it once was. Incessant 
persecution is slowly producing its extermination, although it is still a 
resident bird in most densely wooded districts. Owing to its inordinate 
love of seclusion, gloom, and retirement, its distribution in the British 
Tslands is restricted to wooded localities ; and as tree-planting and improve- 
ments increase, the range of the bird is becoming more extensive, even if 
its actual numbers are decreasing. 
