DISTRIBUTION OF BARN-OWLS. 15 



No doubt isolation has a great deal to do with the variation in 

 the Barn-Owls, the tendency to a dark colour being a character of all the 

 insular forms excepting the Jamaican and British birds, which are extremely 

 light- coloured. Some French birds match the light English ones ; and, again, 

 dark French birds are the same as German and Danish, while New-Granadan 

 examples are scarcely to be distinguished from Jamaican. Thus it comes that 

 I trace a regular gradation in the series, which makes me admit only one 

 species of Common Barn- Owl, the only really distinguishable species being 

 the following : — 



Strix nov^ hollandije. 



Mr. Gould considers that this bird is confined to Australia, where it 

 enjoys a wide range. He writes : — " With the exception of the north coast, 

 I have received specimens from every part of the country. During my visit 

 to the interior of South Australia, numerous individuals fell to my gun, 

 which upon comparison presented no material variation from others killed 

 in New South Wales and Western Australia '' (Handb. B. Austr. i. p. 64). 



Captain Sturt (Exp. Centr. Austr. ii. App. p. 16) writes : — ^^This fine 

 night-bird was very rare in the interior, and only one specimen was procured. 

 Its plumage is characterized by that softness so peculiar to the genus to 

 which it belongs, and in consequence of which its flight is so silent and 

 stealthy that, like the footfall of the cat, it is unheard. This Owl was shot 

 on the Darling, after having been startled out of a tree." 



Considerable variation, as Mr. Gould justly remarks, exists in the 

 plumages of this bird, some being dark and some quite light in colour. He 

 observes that out of numerous examples killed in South Australia in the 

 month of June, he did not meet with one in the '^ white plumage.'' This 

 accords with my own experience ; and there seem to be two distinct phases 

 of the bird. Taking the South-Austrahan bird as the typical form, it may 



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