Bh’ds of Celebes: Strigidae. 
109 
t 
FAMILY STRIGIDAE. 
The sternum is without a manubrium; the furcula formed by the clavicles 
is perfect, there is only one notch on either side in the hinder margin of the 
sternum; the ring on the upper part of the tarsus in front is present^), but re- 
duced to a cartilaginous loop; the second joint of the middle toe is considerably 
longer than the basal joint, the claw thereof is pectinated; the facial disk is 
very perfect, the radiating feathers on either side meeting to form a sort of 
ridge or “hog- mane” over the forehead and base of the culmen; the disk is 
surrounded by a well-defined ruff of stiff feathers. 
GENUS STRIX L. 
Now that Photodilus has been removed from the Barn Owl section in virtue 
of its not having the clavicles united and of its having two processes on the 
hinder margin of the sternum (cf. Newton, Diet. B. 673), the genus Strioj is the 
only one of the Strigidae and may be recognised by the characters given for the 
family. There are five species. The range of the genus is almost cosmopolitan. 
3 — 4 white eggs are laid. The birds prey chiefly upon small mammals. 
34. STKIX FLAMMEA L. 
Barn Owl. 
Although the Barn Owl, Strix flci'mmea, and its races have been most ably discussed 
by Dr. Sharpe in the Catalogue of Birds, II, 291 — 303 and in Eowley’s Ornithological 
Miscellany, I, 269 — 298; II, 1—21, it would he hardly possible to divide this cosmopolitan 
species into subspecies which would answer to all the peculiar conditions of the case. This 
work must he left to the ornithologist of the future, supposing he fulfil the ideas concerning 
the necessity of trinomial nomenclature with all its consequences. In Celebes and Sangi Strix 
flammea presents a great differentiation, and it was named as a distinct species by S chi eg el 
after its discoverer, Rosenberg. It is not easy, however, to point to any difference between 
it and the Javan form of S. flammea [javanica Gm.); though some, as a rule, are to be found. 
b 1. Strix flammea rosenbergi (Schl.). 
a. Strix flammea sp. (1) S. MillL. Verb. Nat. Comm. 1839 — 44, 87; (2) id., Eeizen 1858, H, 8. 
h. Strix rosenbergi (1) Schl., Ned. Tijdschr. Dierk 1866, III, 181; (2) Wall., Ibis 1866, 
26, 27; (3) Wald., Tr. Z. S. 1872, VIII, 41; (4) Schl., Rev. Noctuae 1873, 16 
(Celebes tantum); (5) Wald., Tr. Z. S. 1875, IX, 146; (6) Brliggem., Abh. Yer. 
Bremen 1876, V, 48; (7) Schl., Notes Leycl. Mus. 1878, I, 50; fSjRosenb., Malay. 
Archip. 1878, 271, 583; (9) Meyer, Ibis 1879, 57; (10) W. Bias., J. f. 0. 1883, 
135; (11) Meyer, Isis 1884, 6, 14; (12) Guillem., P. Z. S. 1885, 546; (13) W. Bias., 
Ztschr. ges. Orn. 1885, 235; (14) id., Ornis 1888, 556; (15) Buttik., Zool. Erg. 
Weber’s Reise Ost-Ind. 1893, III, 272; (16) Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1896, 161. 
c. Strix flammea (1) Sharpe, Cat. B. 1875, II, 293; id., Rowl. Orn. Misc. 1866, I, 297; IT, 14. 
d. Strix flammea rosenbergi (1) M. & Wg., Abh. Mus. Dresd. 1895, Nr. 8, p. 5. 
1) Has been supposed to be absent (Newton, Diet. B. 1894, 672). 
