328 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
Lol RX 
(A) FLAMMEA (va7. PRATINCOLA). (American) Barn Oul. 
(This bird has not recently occurred in Massachusetts more 
than once or twice.) 
(a). ‘*'Tawny, or fulvous-brown, delicately clouded or mar- 
bled with ashy and white, and speckled with brownish-black ; 
below, a varying shade from nearly pure white to fulvous, with 
sparse sharp blackish speckling ; face, white to purplish-brown, 
darker or black about the eyes, the disk bordered with dark 
brown; wings and tail barred with brown, and finely mottled 
like the back; bill whitish; toes yellowish, * * * * 9 17 
long; wing 13; tail 52; @ rather less. U.S., Atlantic to 
Pacific, southerly ; rare in the interior, rarely N. to New Eng- 
land.” (Coues.) 
(v). ‘It is not uncommon in the vicinity of Washington, 
and after the partial destruction of the Smithsonian Building 
by fire, for one or two years a pair nested on the top of the 
tower.” ‘Its nests have been found in hollow trees near 
marshy meadows” (Brewer), and, in certain parts of the 
country, the Barn Owls make burrows. The eggs average 
1:70 K 1°30 of an inch, and are bluish or dirty (yellowish) 
white. 
(c). The Barn Owls of America are much less well known 
than those of Europe, and no longer occur in New England, if, 
indeed, they ever have existed there except as stragglers. Mr. 
Allen, in his ‘* Notes on Some of the Rarer Birds of Massa- 
chusetts,” records the capture of one in this State, near Spring- 
field, in May, and that of two others in Connecticut. The 
Barn Owls are common in many places to the southward and 
westward. Says Dr. Brewer: ‘The propensity of the Cali- 
fornia bird to drink the sacred oil of the consecrated lamps 
about the altars of the Missions was frequently referred to by 
the priests, whenever any allusion was made to this Owl.” 
Audubon says that ‘this species.is altogether nocturnal or 
crepuscular, and when disturbed during the day, flies in an ir- 
regular bewildered manner, as if at loss how to look for a 
