OWLS 39 



OWLS. 



The Owls (Order STRIGES) number amongst them 

 some of the farmers' most energetic friends, notwith- 

 standing all manner of silly superstitions attached to 

 them, and pertinaceously believed in by the ignorant. 

 They feed largely on mice, rats, insects of various kinds 

 and occasionally on birds. 



The Striges are divided into two families, the Strigidce, 

 containing two species of the Barn Owl type, and the 

 Bubonida, a large group containing divers forms. 



The Barn Owl (Strix flammea} is a bird common 

 to Europe and Asia. Professor Reichenow, however, 

 separated the South African bird under the name of 

 Strix flammea maculata. It is pearly-grey in colour, 

 vermiculated with darker grey and spotted with brown 

 above ; dirty white below spotted with angular drop- 

 shaped spots of brown. ; 



It is known to the Boers as the Dood-vogel, from a 

 popular belief that if one of these birds screeches on the 

 roof of a house one of the inmates is sure to die. 



They lay two to four oval white eggs in a hollow tree 

 or in a hole in a wall. 



The Grass Owl (S. capensis) is of a much darker colour 

 than the Barn Owl, being of a very dark brown above 

 relieved by a few scattered white dots. Below white 

 spotted with rounded dots of dark brown. 



This is nowhere a common bird, but has been recorded 

 from the Cape, Natal, Basutoland and the Transvaal. 

 We have procured specimens near Grahamstown, at 

 Brandfort, Orange River Colony and Modderfontein, 

 Transvaal, where we have invariably found the bird 

 haunting the " bush " and not the grass of the veld, so its 

 vernacular name does not seem to be quite appropriate. 



