Strix ianeveaa^id Anser erythropus. 399 



Rudbeck * of Upsala had prepared, and which Linnaeus had 

 ample opportunities of studying when he, as a student, lived 

 in E-udbeck's house and was allowed full admission to his 

 library. According to the quotation in the ' Fauna Svecica' 

 (/. c), Rudbeck called the Owl in question " Noctua major, 

 oculorum iridibus pallide luteis.'^ These words are also 

 still to be read on Rudbeck^s original plate no. 170, which 

 represents a specimen of Tengmalm^s Owl. Most of Rud- 

 beck's coloured bird-plates are preserved in the library of 

 Baron C. De Geer at his estate Lofsta in Upland. There 

 is also a set of copies, prepared by Rudbeck himself about 

 1720, in the library of the Royal University of Upsala. In 

 the latter series the corresponding plate has the number 10. 

 There ought perhaps also to be mentioned here that iu both 

 sets of plates there is another coloured figure of Tengmahn^s 

 Owl as well, viz., no. 165 among the originals and no. 9 

 among the copies. This latter figure and its duplicate has 

 the same Swedish name " Storre Stenuglan " (i. e. " Greater 

 Stone-Owl ") inscribed on them as on the previously 

 mentioned plates, and the Latin " name " or diagnosis differs 

 only by giving another colour of the eyes, viz., " iridibus 

 croceis." But although both these two pairs of plates 

 represent the same kind of Owl (as was also evidently 

 Rudbeck's opinion), and are very similar (with the exception 

 of the colour of the eyes), they are very different in size, 

 and the first-mentioned pair appears to represent a much 

 larger bird. This is the reason why Linnaeus, when, in 

 the ' Fauna Svecica,' 1746, he refers to Rudbeck's original 

 plate no. 170, says: "Magnitudo corvi"; but, referring 

 to the original plate no. 165, says, " Magnitudo cuculi^' 

 {conf. ^ Fauna Svecica,' 1746, sp. 50). This different size 

 induced Linnaeus to regard these plates as possibly 

 representing two different species, and he quotes them 

 under two different numbers in the ' Fauna Svecica,' 

 1746, but he gave only one of them a name in the 



* It is thus erroneous wlieu Hartert, in ' A Hand-list of British Birds ' 

 (London, 1912), p. 105, footnote, states that the name funerea " was 

 principally based on a figure by Billberg representing Tengnialui's Owl." 



