BARN OWL. 53 



the horrors of that luckless wight who, having killed 

 the church owl as it flitted past him, ran shrieking 

 home, and, with his hair on end, confessed his awful 

 crime "I've been and shot a Cherubim !" This species 

 occasionally, like the tawny owl, feeds its young upon 

 fish, which it has been seen to catch in the most 

 dexterous manner, and I have also known several 

 instances in which it has been picked up dead, or 

 wounded, under the telegraph wires. 



An extremely dark variety of this owl in the Norwich 

 museum (British series, No. 29. b), was killed near Norwich 

 about the 13th of December, 1864, and is particularly 

 interesting from its similarity, both in colour and mark- 

 ings, to a specimen in our Raptorial collection, pre- 

 sented by Professor Eeinhardt. Of the latter, this gen- 

 tleman writes, in a letter to Mr. A. Newton (Oct. 9th, 

 1860), " I have ordered a stuffed Strix flammea to be 

 put up in a little box, which will be despatched to the 

 care of Mr. Goddard, one of the first days. The bird is 

 from Fyen (Fiinen), but it is, I think, no peculiar race ; 

 at least not peculiar to the said island where the bird is 

 rare ; I should rather suppose that all the examples of $. 

 flammeob from Sleswig Holstein and the northern parts of 

 Germany are nearly as dark beneath as the specimens 

 you saw in Copenhagen." I am not aware that this dark 

 variety* has received any specific distinction, but it is 

 quite possible, as Mr. Newton is inclined to believe, 

 that the bird in question may have come across from the 

 Danish locality, whence Professor Eeinhardt' s example 

 was procured. Supposing this to be really the case, the 

 question naturally arises, whether barn owls from more 



* The dark coloured variety is figured by Kjaerbcelling (Dan- 

 marks Fugles, pi. vii.), but it is there called Strix flammea. It 

 is rather rare in all parts of Denmark. 



