440 WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 
WHITE, OR BARN OWL.—STRIX FLAMMEA. —Fie. 197. 
Lath. i. 138. — Arct. Zool. p. 235, No. 124. — Phil., Trans. iii. 158. — L’Effraie, 
ou la Fresaie, Buff. i. 366, pl. 26, Pl. ent. 440. — Bewick’s Brit. Birds, i. p. 89. 
— Common Owl, Lurt. Syst. p. 170.— Peale’s Museum, No. 486. 
ULULA FLAMMEA. —CuvizEr.* 
Strix fammea, Bonap. Synop. p. 38. 
Tuts Owl, though so common in Europe, is much rarer in this part of 
the United States than the preceding, and is only found here during 
very severe winters. This may possibly be owing to the want of those 
favorite recesses in this part of the world, which it so much affects in 
the eastern continent. The multitudes of old, ruined castles, towers, 
monasteries, and cathedrals, that every where rise to view in those 
countries, are the chosen haunts of this well-known species. Its-sav- 
age cries at night give, with vulgar minds, a cast of supérnatural 
horror to those venerable, mouldering piles of antiquity. This species, 
being common to both continents, ‘doubtless extends to the Arctic 
Regions. It also inhabits Tartary, where, according to Pennant, 
“the Monguls and natives almost pay it divine honors, because they 
attribute to this: species the preservation of the founder of their 
empire, Ginghis Khan. That prince, with his small army, happened 
to be surprised and put to-flight by his enemies, and forced to conceal 
himself in a little.coppice ; an owl settled on the bush under which he 
was hid, and induced his pursuers not to search there, as they thought 
it impossible that any man could be concealed in a place where that 
* From the authority of most writers, this Owl is common to both continents. 
Temminck says those from America are exactly the same. I have not personally 
had an opportunity of comparing them. 
In all true night-feeding birds, or those that require to steal upon their prev 
unobserved, the general plumage is formed for a light, smooth, and noiseless flig? _ 
but the members are not adapted for great swiftness, or for seizing their prev y 
quick and sudden evolutions. The form is comparatively light, as far a che 
necessary requisites for sufficient strength can be combined with it; * 4 ihe 
plumage, being ample and loose, assists by its buoyancy, and does not wer the 
same resistance to the air as one of a stiff and rigid texture. The wings, the great 
organs of locomotion, and which, in flight, produce the most noise, are rounded, 
having the webs of the feathers very broad, calculated for a powerful and sustain- 
ing flight ; and the mechanism of the feathers at once bespeaks an intention to de- 
stroy the sound produced by motion. In all those birds which perform very swift 
and rapid flights — the Falcons, for instance, Swifts, or Swallows, many of the sea 
fowl, the Fregate Bird —the wings are very pointed, (a contraricty of form to the 
are ee nls the plumules very closely united, and Jocked:together, so as to form 
almost a thin or solid slip. These produce more resistance, and act as a strong 
propelling medium, when vigorously used. In the Owls the wings present a larger 
surface, but are not so capable of swift motion; and, to prevent the noise which 
would necessarily be produced by the violent percussion of so great an expanse, 
the webs are entirely detached at the tips, and the plumules of the inner ones being 
drawn to a fine point, thus offer a free passage to the air, and a gradual diminution 
of resistance. As a further proof that this structure is so intended, we find it to a 
much less extent in those species that feed occasionally during the day, and we 
have also the narrowing and acumination of the wings, denoting superior flight ; 
while, in some, there is a still greater digression in the elongated tail. — Ep. 
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