PREFACE. 
k^iii 
b. Inauriculatce. (= Strix, Linn.). 
Type of Stephens, 1826. 6. nyctea. 
Type of Syrniuni, Savigny, 1809. 7 - aluco. 
8. flammea. 
9. stridula = No, 7. 
, f 10. ulula 
Type of Surnia, Dumeril, 1806. | funerea 
Type of Glauddtum, Boie, 1826. 12. passerina 
Hence we see that, by the gradual elimination of the Lmnean 
species, as one after another becomes fixed as the type 
of some genus or other, S(nx oius, Linn., remains the type of 
the genus Asio, Briss., and Strix flammea is the sole survivor of 
the genus Strix as instituted by Linnoeus, and becomes its type. 
Besides this, Savigny, when he split up the Owls in 1809, 
and made several new genera, restricted the Barn Owl for his 
genus Strix (ex Linn.), as he had every right to do. 
Descriptions.— \-o the accounts of the different plumages of 
our British Birds, I have, in nearly every case, described actual 
specimens in the British Museum, and my descriptions through- 
out the work have been mostly original. Some of my critics 
have complained that these descriptions are unnecessarily long, 
especially in the case of foreign birds which have occurred but a 
few times in Great Britain. To that I would reply, that no one 
knows what is going to happen, and these detailed descriptions 
may one day be found useful in determining foreign visitors 
to our shores ; and secondly, by the many hundreds of earnest 
students, who may be unknown to fame, but who are neverthe- 
less doing excellent work in many parts of the country, these 
descriptions are studied, as I have been informed by many of 
my correspondents. I have tried to condense into this ‘Hand- 
book” only such descriptions of plumage as will be useful 
to students, to whom the large works, in which such details 
appear, are often inaccessible. In many instances I have 
