THE BARN-OWLS. 



107 



Another character is seen in the sternum, or breast-bone, 

 which has no fissures or clefts in its hinder margin, and at the 

 same time the furcula, or " merry-thought," is joined to the keel 

 of the sternum. 



The White Owls are almost cosmopolitan, and are found 

 even in the Pacific Islands. There are two sections of White 

 Owls, which may be distinguished as Barn-Owls and Grass- 

 Owls, the latter, as their name implies, frequenting dense grass- 



Sternum of Strix flammta^ to show the junction of the furcula and the 

 outline of the hinder margin. [From the Catalogue of Birds in the British 

 Museum, vol. ii. p. 289.] 



land. Both the known species of Grass-Owls are easily recog- 

 nised by their uniform brown upper surface, instead of having 

 vermiculations on the back, like the Barn-Owls, and they are 

 often separated by naturalists under a separate genus, Scelo- 

 strix. One of the species, S. capensis, inhabits South Africa, 

 while the second, S. Candida, is found in India and China, 

 the Philippines, North Australia, and re-occurs in the Fiji 

 Islands. 



THE BARN-OWLS. GENUS STRIX. 

 StriX) Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 133 (1766). 



Type, S.flammea (L.). 

 The Barn-Owls, on the other hand, are birds which love the 



