ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



OF BARN-OWLS. 



By R. BOWDLER SHARPE, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c , 

 Zoological Department, British Museum. 



In the second part of this Journal Mr. Dawson Rowley has given a short 

 note on the dark or Danish race of the Barn-Owl, accompanied by an 

 excellent figure of the bird by Mr. Keulemans. Having drawn attention to 

 the occurrence of this dark form in England, Mr. Rowley was so kind as to 

 ask me to supplement the details there given by a few observations as to the 

 distribution of Barn-Owls over the earth's surface ; and this I have now 

 the pleasure of doing. I have already stated (Cat. Birds, vol. ii. pp. 294-296) 

 my general views on the subject of Barn-Owls ; but as in a technical 

 volume like the British- Museum Catalogue it was impossible to go very 

 deeply into the reasons which guided my ultimate conclusion, I am glad to 

 have a further opportunity for ventilating the subject, and for publishing a 

 considerable mass of notes which I had accumulated during the compilation 

 of my article on Strix Jlammea and its allies. 



Most Owls have two distinct phases, a light and a dark one ; and the 

 Barn-Owls are no exception to the rule, although the fact has not been 

 brought into any great prominence by English writers on ornithology. 

 Mr. Stevenson, however, in his ' Birds of Norfolk,' p. 53, refers to a very 

 dark-coloured bird killed in that county on December 13th, 1864; and on 

 comparison with a Danish example sent over by Professor Reinhardt, it was 

 pronounced to be identical with the deeply coloured form resident in that 



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