STRIX FLAMMEA. 165 



whitish towards their edges, and crossed on the terminal half with broken-up brownish bars ; outer webs and tips 

 mottled like the back with traces of bars corresponding to those of the inner webs ; a white, dark-edged spot at 

 the tips of the quill-feathers, most conspicuous on the tertials ; tail crossed with four narrow, wavy bars of brown, 

 mottled with whitish ; the tip white, mottled with brown, and terminated with a black-and-white spot. 

 Facial disk white, speckled in some with grey ; a rufous patch in front of the eye ; ruff (of stiff, erect feathers) glossy 

 white interiorly, rich rufous at the tips of the exterior feathers, which are also pencilled round the edges with 

 brown ; sides of the neck concolorous with the back, the feathers with terminal greyish-bordered spots ; throat 

 and under surface white, faintly tinged here and there, and more particularly on the flanks and tibia, with delicate 

 buff; feathers of the flanks and sides of the breast with dark triangular terminal spots; under tail- coverts in 

 some spotted, in others entirely white. Under wing-coverts and lower surface of quills white; the lesser coverts 

 with blackish spots and dashes of buff. 



Obs. Some Ceylonese specimens are of a richer or more orange-buff than others, and in all that I have examined is the 

 tail concolorous with the back. The spottings of the under surface are always present, in a greater or less degree, 

 some examples having the belly and thighs as much marked as the breast. I have not seen any traces of zigzag 

 markings in Ceylon birds, and thus they possess more affinity to the Indian than to the Malayan type of this 

 variable species. The plumage of this Owl fades considerably with the age of the feathers and perhaps from 

 exposure to the sun's rays. Such a specimen I possess in my collection, the appearance of which would suggest 

 the idea that the bird had selected an exposed situation wherein to roost. The buff tint has entirely disappeared 

 from the exposed portion of the upper-surface feathers, and the dark spots are very pale. The feathers in this 

 example are much abraded throughout. 



Young. In the European bird the nestling is covered with white down, the wing-feathers having the normal buff hue, 

 with greyish and white mottlings. 



Young bird on leaving the nest (Sharpe, Cat. Birds, ii. p. 293). — " General colour above orange, but profusely obscured 

 with light grey, all the latter plumes vermiculated with ashy brown and having a distinct subterminal white 

 spot margined both above and below with brown ; the head and hind neck coloured like the back, but more 

 decidedly orange, especially the sides of the neck, which are bright orange with a few bright spots ; wing-coverts 

 coloured like the back ; primary-coverts orange, mottled at the tips like the rest of the coverts, but much paler 

 externally and inclining to whitish ; quills orange, mottled at the tips with greyish, and having distinct cross bars 

 of grey mottled with white ; tail pale orange, barred with greyish and mottled with the same. 



" Facial disk silvery white, the feathers rufous round the eye and especially in front of the latter ; ruff glistening white, 

 the upper plumes washed with orange, and the lower ones also tipped with clear orange ; feathers of the under 

 surface pure white, tinged with orange on the chest, but not spotted." 



Distribution. — This cosmopolitan and well-known bird is an inhabitant of the north and north-west coasts 

 of Ceylon. The natives have, my friend Mr. W. Murray informs me, a tradition among themselves that it was 

 introduced by the Dutch. I will not venture to pronounce an opinion on this point, but will simply remark 

 that its range is extremely limited. Layard only noticed it at Jaffna, where it used to be common about the 

 fine old Dutch fort, living in the ramparts ; it was tolerably numerous there, Mr. Murray writes me, until 

 about ten years ago ; since then its numbers, which were always limited, have been thinned by people collecting, 

 and by the birds occasionally being caught abroad in the daytime by the Jaffna Crows, and quickly treated to 

 lynch-law by these tyrannical citizens. It inhabits some old buildings in the neighbourhood of the town, and 

 has been met with in the fine banyan-tree on the road to Chavakacheri. It no doubt frequents other ruined 

 buildings along the coast to Manaar, in which district Mr. Holdsworth records it from Aripu. Further south 

 it has been found at Puttalam, where Mr. R. Pole, of the Ceylon Civil Service, informs me he has seen 

 it. I am not aware that its range extends lower down the coast than this latter place. On the opposite coast 

 it is not known. 



The Barn-Owl inhabits India, Siam, and Malayana, and extends eastward to Arabia. As regards the 

 other continents of the globe it may be said (now that the many races hitherto recognized have been amalga- 

 mated into the one species by Mr. Sharpe) to be found in all of them. It is generally distributed throughout 

 Europe and Africa, extending, in its race of S. poensis, to the island of Madagascar and to the Cape Verds. 

 In America the western form S. pratincola is distributed throughout the North- American, West-Indian, and 

 Neotropical Regions, as far south as Chili, and extends over to the Galapagos Islands. In the Australian Region 



