BIRD-BONES FOUND IN THE CAVES. 231 



13. THE COMMON BARN-OWL. Strix fiammea, Linne". L'Effraye commune. 



The presence of this species at Bruniquel is indicated by a tarso-metatarsal bone 

 and by a humerus. They are the only proofs we possess of the presence at that 

 epoch of an Owl which is nevertheless now so common in France. 



14. THE COMMON SPARROW-OWL. Noctua minor, Brisson. La Cheve'che. 



M. P. Gervais had already recognized some bones of this species in the Cave at 

 La Tour de Farges, not far from that of Lunel Vieil*. I again found this same 

 Owl in the Cave of Verezzi in Liguriaf, and at Bruniquel, where a tibia and a 

 tarso-metatarsal were collected in a good state of preservation. 



15. THE LITTLE SPARROW-OWL. Strix passer ina, Linne ; Glaucidium passerimim, 



Boie. La Chevechette. 



M. Lartet forwarded to me, a little before his death, a very small tarso-meta- 

 tarsal found by him at Aurignac. This bone appears to me to have come from 

 Glaucidium passerinum%. It is very different from its analogue in the Scops Owl 

 and the Sparrow-Owl ; it is much shorter and more expanded, not merely in its 

 articular portions, but also in its diaphysary part. By its proportions it approxi- 

 mates very nearly to the tarso-metatarsal of Glaucidium phalcenoides, a small Owl 

 found in the Antilles, but it is still broader. 



Glaucidium passerinum is now common in the cold regions of the Old Conti- 

 nent ; in Norway it is found in the Conifer-woods, where it feeds chiefly on small 

 Rodents, and, in case of need, on Bats and small Birds. 



Schrenck, and afterwards Radde, met with it in Siberia. It has been noticed 

 also in Poland and Lithuania ; but it is rare and has only accidentally been seen 

 in Germany. Yet it appears sometimes to wander further southward, especially 

 following woods of the large mountain-chains; thus it has been met with in 

 Savoy and Switzerland. The Little Sparrow-Owl, therefore, at the present day 

 may be regarded as an arctic species ; and its presence in the Caves, where the 

 remains of the Reindeer are accumulated, is another fact to be added to the list 

 of proofs of a low temperature at that period. 



16. THE SNOWY OWL. Nyctea nivea, Bonap. ; Strix nyctea, Linne". Le Harfang. 



The remains of this species are met with in abundance in most of the Caves in 

 the South-west of France; and it is certainly one of the most interesting that 



* Zoologie et Paleontologie franaise, 2nd edit. p. 419. t Ramorino, op. cit. p. 29. 



J Strix passerina, Linne, Systeme Naturel (1766), t. i. p. 133. 



