240 



Mr. Ridgway then separates Strix javanica (from India and Eastern Africa) as a bird of the same 

 colours as Strix delicatula. The African Barn-Owl, according to my experience, is always 

 darker than the European, especially the specimens from Southern Africa ; but they are again 

 scarcely distinguished from the dark phase of Strix flammed. The Indian examples, on the 

 contrary, run paler in colour, and are often nearly uniform grey on the back. In Java and the 

 Malayan subregion a slight modification takes place, and the trace of zigzag markings on the 

 breast, sometimes discernible in the Indian birds, becomes tolerably well pronounced, especially 

 in Strix rosenbergi, which is a large form of Strix javanica, and is not allied to Strix novce- 

 hollandice. The same character divides Mr. Bidgway's Strix guatemalce from Strix pratincola or 

 Strix flammea ; and this zigzag marking on the breast is extremely developed in the St. -Domingo 

 Barn-Owl (Strix glaucops of Kaup). The Cuban and Jamaican bird is, at first sight, remarkable 

 chiefly for its white tail ; but in this respect it resembles British specimens, which, although 

 matched by French birds, are quite different from any I have as yet seen from Germany. Strix 

 insularis is a small dark form, supposed to be peculiar to the Cape-Verd Islands, but approached 

 by some Senegambian specimens. It is closely allied to the Galapagoan Strix punctatissima. 

 Strix perlata from South America is smaller than the North- American bird, and comes, therefore, 

 very close to the European Strix flammea. 



" My conclusion with regard to the Barn-Owls is, that there is one dominant type which 

 prevails generally over the continents of the Old and New Worlds, being darker or lighter 

 according to different localities, but possessing no distinctive specific characters. Insular birds 

 vary, but cannot be specifically distinguished, as they can always be approached by continental 

 specimens in a large series. Thus Strix furcata of Jamaica appears different, but is scarcely to 

 be distinguished from Bogota specimens, which possess a white tail also. Strix insularis of the 

 Cape-Verd Islands is scarcely to be separated from some Senegambian skins. Strix glaucops is 

 not very different from Veraguan Barn-Owls ; and these are again approached by Malayan 

 specimens." 



Although the variation in European specimens is not great as compared with the great 

 differences in extreme forms from various other portions of the globe, yet it is by no means 

 small, as can be seen even in the small series of examples in my own collection. One of these, 

 from Pagham, has the upper parts very rufous, and but sparingly marked with grey, and the 

 underparts pure silky white, unmarked ; whereas others have the underparts more or less 

 spotted, and the upper parts considerably more varied with grey and spotted. On the other 

 hand, one from Kent, sent up in the flesh on the 24th February, 1876, has the upper parts 

 grey, vermiculated with blackish grey, and profusely dashed with long black tear-shaped spots, 

 and spotted with greyish white, there being no trace of rufous on the upper parts ; the under- 

 parts of this bird are warm orange rufescent, profusely spotted with black ; the facial disks are 

 washed with rufous ; and the region round the eye is blackish brown, this colour being more 

 extended in the anterior portion. Another example, from Transylvania, obtained by Mr. J. A. 

 Harvie-Brown, resembles this bird, but is much darker on the upper parts, and deeper rufous on 

 the underparts. 



In Great Britain the Barn-Owl is common and resident throughout England, Wales, and 

 Ireland, but it becomes less numerous towards the north of Scotland. Mr. A. G. More says 



