THE BARN OWL. 129 



is so noiseless that one is surprised to find them removed from one place to 

 another without having heard the least sound. They disgorge their pellets 

 with difficulty, although generally at a single effort, but I did not observe 

 that this action was performed at any regular period. The examination of 

 entire specimens has brought to light a remarkable and unvarying character 

 in the feathers which fringe the operculum. In both the American and 

 European species the tubes of these feathers are very large; but in the 

 American bird the shafts are obsolete, whereas in the European bird, each 

 tube bears a very slender shaft, about half an inch long, and furnished with 

 about a dozen filaments on each side, forming an elliptical or obovate feather. 

 This character and the great difference in size, will suffice to distinguish the 

 American bird, to which, it having been shewn to be distinct, in my Orni- 

 thological Biography, I have given the name of Strix Americana. 



White or Barn Owl, Strix Jlammea, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vi. p. 57* 



Strix flammea, Bonap. Syn., p. 38. 



White or Barn Ovvl, Strix Jlammea, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 139. 



Barn Owl, Strix Jlammea, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. ii. p. 403; vol. v. p. 388. 



Feathers margining the operculum with the shaft and webs undeveloped. 

 Bill pale greyish-yellow; claws and scales brownish-yellow. General colour 

 of upper parts greyish-brown, with light yellowish-red interspersed, produced 

 by very minute mottling; each feather having toward the end a central streak 

 of deep brown, terminated by a small oblong greyish-white spot; wings 

 similarly coloured; secondary coverts and outer edges of primary coverts 

 with a large proportion of light brownish-red; quills and tail transversely 

 barred with brown; lower parts pale brownish-red, fading anteriorly into 

 white, each feather having a small dark brown spot at the tip. 



Closely allied to Strix Jlammea, but larger, and differing somewhat in 

 colour, being generally darker, with the ruff red. A character by which 

 they may always be distinguished is found in the operculum, the feathers 

 margining which are in the present species reduced to their tubes, the shafts 

 and filaments being wanting, whereas in the European species each tube 

 bears a very slender shaft, about half an inch long, and furnished with about 

 half a dozen filaments on each side. 



Male, 17, 42. Female, 18, 46. 



Vol. I. 19 



