Species IV. 
STIUX FLAMMEA. 
WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 
[Plate L. Fig. 2.] 
Lath, i., VA'i.—Ard. Zool. p. 235, No. 124.— P/,//. Trmis. in., US.~L' E/J'raie, ou 
la Fremie, Buff, i., 366, pi. 26, PI. enl. 440.— Beavick's British Birds, i., p. 89. 
— CommoH Owl, Turt. Si/st. p. 170. 
This Owl, though so common in Europe, is rare in this part of the 
United States; and is only found here during very severe winters. 
This may possibly be owing to the want of those favorite recesses, 
which it so much alTects in the eastern continent. The multitudes of 
old ruined castles, towers, monasteries and cathedrals, that everywhere 
rise to view in those countries, are the chosen haunts of this well known 
species. Its savage cries at night' give, with vulgar miiuls, a cast of 
supernatural liorror 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 Mongols and natives almost pay it divine honors, because they 
attribute to this species the preservation of the founder of their empire, 
Cinghis Khan. That prince, with his small army, happened to be sur- 
prised 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 pui'suers not to search there, as they thought it impossible 
that any man could be concealed in a place Avhere that bird would perch. 
From thenceforth they held it Xo be sacred, and every one Avore a plume 
of the feathers of this species on his head. To this day the Kalmucs 
continue the custom on all great festivals ; and some tribes have an idol 
in form of an Owl, to which they fasten the real legs of one."* 
This species is rarely found in Pennsylvania in summer. Of its place 
and manner of building I am unable, from my own observation, to speak. 
The bird itself has been several times found in the hollow of a tree, and 
was once caught in a barn in my neighborhood. European writers in- 
form us, that it makes no nest ; but deposits its eggs in the holes of 
walls, and lays five or six of a whitish color ; is said to feed on mice and 
small birds, Avhich, like the most of its tribe, it swallows whole, and 
afterwards emits the bones, feathers, and other indigestible parts, at its 
» Arct. Zool. p. 235. 
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