DISTRIBUTION OF BARN-OWLS. 271 



a strongly marked character in its white tail, that were it not for the 

 existence of the dark phase it would almost deserve to be separated as a 

 distinct race from the Barn-Owl of the continent ; the only other Strix 

 which seems to have a similar white tail is found in Jamaica and Columbia. 

 S.flammea seems to be generally distributed over Great Britain. 



Mr. A. G. More gives it as a general breeding-bird all over the country ; 

 but he says it is " very rare in the north of Scotland, and nests only 

 occasionally in Ross and Caithness. Low states that it used to breed in 

 Hoy ; but the bird has not been recently seen in the Orkneys " (Ibis, 1865, 



p. 15;. 



Mr. Robert Gray (' Birds of the West of Scotland,' p. 58) writes as 

 follows : — " Judging from the numbers of this beautiful Owl which are sent 

 to the shops of the Glasgow bird-stuffers, it would appear to be one of the 

 commonest ' feathered mousers ' in the neighbourhood of that city. There 

 is scarcely, indeed, a ruined building of any consequence within a radius of 

 thirty miles of Glasgow, but what is frequented by one or two pairs. Yet 

 it is by no means widely distributed as a Scottish species, some of the more 

 northern counties being totally destitute of the associations which its 

 presence has given rise to. In the western islands I have been able to trace 

 it only in Mull and Islay; in the former locality it is rather rare, but in the 

 latter it is well known in two districts at least — the woods at Islay house 

 and Port-Askaig, as I have been informed by Mr. Elwes." 



"In lona," says Mr. Graham, "where we have a venerable ruined 

 belfry and a moon, we have no Owl to live in the one or mope her melan- 

 choly at the other." " In the east of Scotland the white Owl is common 

 enough from Berwickshire to Aberdeenshire, with the exception of perhaps 

 Forfarshire : it is likewise found in many of the midland counties, especially 

 those south of Perthshire. In Banffshire it is rare : but westward it becomes 

 more common, and is by no means rare in Ross-shire." 



It is not mentioned in Dr. Saxby's work on the birds of Shetland. 

 According to Mr. Thompson (' Birds of Ireland,' p. 92) it is the most common 



