DISTRIBUTION OF BARN-OWLS. 11 



are more or less white. In Europe and America these two varieties are 

 found in about equal numbers ; in Africa the dark variety is rarer than the 

 light ; and specimens from Java and Australia appear constantly to represent 

 a light- coloured plumage. We lay aside the supposed character of a forked 

 tail in American specimens, the emargination of this organ being absolutely 

 the same in proportion in individuals from different parts of the world. The 

 result of these facts is that it is excessively difficult, if not impossible, to 

 characterize the Barn-Owls of the different parts of the globe, and that, 

 w^ithout denying the existence of several conspecies under the heading of this 

 species, we have not yet the power to establish them in an indisputable 

 manner ; we are therefore bound to a simple enumeration of specimens 

 according to the different localities which the species inhabits, only 

 dividing for the moment under a separate title the Barn-Owls of the 

 New World.^' 



Mr. Allen (Bull. Harv. Coll. ii. p. 342) writes :— 



" Respecting the numerous species of late recognized in the Strix flammea 

 group of Owls, Mr. Cassin has with great propriety remarked that naturalists 

 have ' established species on very slender characters.' 



" As is well known, different specimens from near the same locality vary 

 considerably in colour and size, while specimens from different continents are 

 frequently almost undistinguishable. From the considerable number of 

 specimens I have seen from different points — as Europe, the United States, 

 South America, Southern Asia, the West Indies, Australia, and South 

 Africa — I see no reason why the Strioc fiammea may not be regarded as 

 having a nearly cosmopolitan distribution, which, indeed, seems to be the 

 present opinion of several European ornithologists. Nearly the same 

 variations in colour appear to occur on each continent, the general colour in 

 specimens from near the same locality varying from yellowish rufous to pale 

 fulvous, and the dusky spots from being large and conspicuous to nearly 

 obsolete or entirely wanting." 



