WHITE OR BARN OWL. 2 6g 



It is distinguished in England by various names, the barn 

 owl, the church owl, gillihowlet and screech owl. In the 

 Lowlands of Scotland it is universally called the hoolet. 



The white or barn owl is fourteen inches long, and upwards 

 of three feet six inches in extent ; bill, a whitish horn colour, 

 longer than is usual among its tribe ; space surrounding each 

 eye remarkably concave, the radiating feathers meeting in a 

 high projecting ridge, arching from the bill upwards; between 

 these lies a thick tuft of bright tawny feathers, that are scarcely 

 seen unless the ridges be separated ; face, white, surrounded 

 by a border of narrow, thick-set, velvety feathers, of a reddish 

 cream colour at the tip, pure silvery white below, and finely 

 shafted with black ; whole upper parts, a bright tawny yellow, 

 thickly sprinkled with whitish and pale purple, and beautifully 

 interspersed with larger drops of white, each feather of the 

 back and wing-coverts ending in an oblong spot of white, 

 bounded by black ; head, large, tumid ; sides of the neck, pale 

 yellow ochre, thinly sprinkled with small touches of dusky; 

 primaries and secondaries the same, thinly barred, and thickly 

 sprinkled with dull purplish brown ; tail, two inches shorter 

 than the tips of the wings, even, or very slightly forked, pale 

 yellowish, crossed with five bars of brown, and thickly dotted 

 with the same; whole lower parts, pure white, thinly inter- 

 spersed with small round spots of blackish ; thighs, the same ; 

 legs, long, thinly covered with short white down nearly to the 

 feet, which are of a dirty white, and thickly warted ; toes, 

 thinly clad with white hairs ; legs and feet large and clumsy ; 

 the ridge, or shoulder of the wing, is tinged with bright orange 

 brown. The aged bird is more white ; in some, the spots of 

 black on the breast are wanting, and the colour below a pale 

 yellow ; in others, a pure white, 



The female measures fifteen inches and a half in length, 

 and three feet eight inches in extent ; is much darker above ; 

 the lower parts tinged with tawny, and marked also with 

 round spots of black. One of these was lately sent me, which 

 was shot on the border of the meadows below Philadelphia. 



