OWLS. 



347 



To these must be added the wide differences in si/e, but these lose much of their 

 significance in view of the veiy great variation in this respect among the different 

 races oiflammeus. A small specimen of the European barn-owl (typical flammeus) is 

 perhaps not more than thirteen inches long, with a wing measuring eleven inches and 

 tail five. Its general color may be very nearly white, especially below ; the tail per- 

 fectly white, or with only the faintest suggestion of orange, without dark bars. The 

 back and upper surface of wings is pale orange or buff, delicately mottled with silver 



FIG. 157. Aluco flammeus, barn-owl. 



gray, and with many distinct white spots, each accompanied by a black one. Com- 

 pare such a bird with a large female of the barn-owl of Van Dieman's Land, A. cas- 

 tanops. The latter is twenty or twenty-one inches long; the wing measures from 

 fourteen to fifteen inches, and the tail about eight. The lower parts are " deep golden 

 buff," with spots and bars of blackish ; the upper parts, including the wings, choco- 

 late brown; the tail even darker, but crossed with five or six bars of "golden buff," 

 while the face, instead of being pure white as in flammeus, is light chestnut, with a 

 black patch in front of the eye. 



