Species IV. STRIX FLAMMEA. 



WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 



[Plate 1. Fig. 2.] 



Lath, i., 138.— ^;r/. Zool. p. 23.5, No. VIA.— Phil. Trans, in., US.—L'l-^raie, ou 

 la Fresaie, Buff, i., 306, pi. 26, PI. enl. 440.— Bewick's British Birds, i., p. 89. 

 — Common Uid, Turt. Si/st. p. 170. 



This Owl, though so common in Europe, is rare in this part of the 

 United States ; and is only found here during very severe winters. 

 This may possibly be owing to the want of those favorite recesses, 

 which it so much afl'ects in the eastern continent. The multitudes of 

 old ruined castles, towers, monasteries and cathedrals, that everywhere 

 rise to view in those countries, are the chosen haunts of this well known 

 species. Its savage cries at night give, with vulgar minds, a cast of 

 supernatural horror to those venerable mouldering piles of antiquity. 

 This species, being common to both continents, doubtless extends to the 

 arctic regions. It also inhabits Tartary, where, according to Pennant, 

 " the Mongols and natives almost pay it divine honors, because they 

 attribute to this species the preservation of the founder of their empire, 

 Cinghis Khan. That prince, with his small army, happened to be sur- 

 prised and put to flight by his enemies, and forced to conceal himself in 

 a little coppice : an Owl settled on the bush under which he was hid, and 

 induced his pursuers not to search there, as they thought it impossible 

 that any man could be concealed in a place where that bird would perch. 

 From thenceforth they held it to be sacred, and every one wore a plume 

 of the feathers of this species on his head. To this day the Kalmucs 

 continue the custom on all great festivals ; and some tribes have an idol 

 in form of an Owl, to which they fasten the real legs of one."* 



This species is rarely found in Pennsylvania in summer. Of its place 

 and manner of building I am unable, from my own observation, to speak. 

 The bird itself has been several times found in the hollow of a tree, and 

 was once caught in a barn in my neighborhood. European writers in- 

 form us, that it makes no nest ; but deposits its eggs in the holes of 

 walls, and lays five or six of a whitish color ; is said to feed on mice and 

 small birds, which, like the most of its tribe, it swallows whole, and 

 afterwards emits the bones, feathers, and other indigestible parts, at its 



» Aret. Zool. p. 23.5. 



(88) 



