154 BRITISH BIRDS. 



STRIX ALUCO. 

 WOOD-OWL. 



(PLATE 6.) 



Strix strix, Briss. Orn. i. p. 500 (1760, rufous form). 



Strix ulula, Briss. Orn. i. p. 507 (1760, grey form). 



Strix stridula, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 133 (1766, rufous form). 



Strix ulula, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 133 (1766, grey form). 



Strix aluco, Gerini, Orn. Meih. Dig. i. p. 90, pi. Ixxxxiv. (1767) ; et auctorum 

 plurimorum Latham,raUas,Vieillot,Naumann,Temminck,Sunderatt, (Newton), 

 (Gould), (Gray), (Bonaparte), Schleael, (StricMand), (Sharpe),8ic., necLinnceus. 



Strix syl^estris, /Sleep. Ann. I. Hist. Nat. p. 21 (1769). 



Strix sylvatica, Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. vii. pt. 1, p. 253 (1809). 



Syrnium ululans, Sav. Syst. Ois. de VEyypte, p. 52 (1810). 



Syrnium stridulum (Linn.), Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. xiii. pt. 2, p. 62 (1826). 



Syrnium aluco (Linn.), apud Boie, Isis, 1828, p. 315. 



Ulula stridula (Linn.), Selby, III. Brit. Orn. i. p. 102 (1833). 



Aluco stridulus (Linn.), Macgill. Rapac. B. of G. Brit. p. 367 (1836). 



Ulula aluco (Linn.), apud Keys, fy Bias, Wirb. Eur. p. 143 (1840). 



Linnaeus somewhat hesitatingly separated the grey form of the Wood- 

 Owl from the rufous form of this species, naming the former Strix stridula 

 and the latter Strix ulula. Latham, Tunstall, Pennant, and others con- 

 sidered them distinct under these Latin names, calling them the Brown 

 Owl and the Tawny Owl ; but subsequent writers for the most part have 

 united them. Gmelin and Pallas, naturally considering it impossible that 

 Linnaeus could have been unacquainted with the Short-eared Owl, 

 applied the name of Strix ulula to that bird. Bonaparte, Gray, Newton, 

 Sharpe, and Dresser, in defiance of the careful description in the ' Fauna 

 Suecica/ and regardless of the fact that Linnaeus described the Hawk Owl 

 as Strix funerea, inhabiting both Europe and America, adopt the startling 

 proposition that Linnaeus intended to describe the European Hawk Owl 

 under the name of Strix ulula. 



Although Linnaeus clearly gives two names to the Wood-Owl, by far 

 the greater number of ornithologists have selected for that species a third 

 Linnean name, Strix aluco, which most likely belongs to the Barn-Owl, 

 though the evidence is not very satisfactory. 



The Tawny Owl is not so common in Britain as it once was. Incessant 

 persecution is slowly producing its extermination, although it is still a 

 resident bird in most densely wooded districts. Owing to its inordinate 

 love of seclusion, gloom, and retirement, its distribution in the British 

 Islands is restricted to wooded localities ; and as tree-planting and improve- 

 ments increase, the range of the bird is becoming more extensive, even if 

 its actual numbers are decreasing. 



