SPECIES 4. STRIX FLAMMED. 
WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 
[Plate L. — Fig. 2.] 
Lath, i, 138. — Arct. Zool. p. 235, A'o. 124. — Phil. Trans, iii, 
138. — UEffraie, ou In Fresaie, Buff, i, 366, pi. 26. PI. enl. 
440. — Bewick’s British Birds, i, p. 89 . — Common Owl, Turt. 
Syst. p. 170. — Peale’s Museum, JSTo. 486. 
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 he owing to the want of those fa- 
vourite recesses, which it so much affects in the eastern conti- 
nent. The multitudes of old ruined castles, towers, monaste- 
ries and cathedrals, that every where rise to view in those 
countries, are the chosen haunts of this well known species. Its 
savage cries at night give, with vulgar minds, a cast of super- 
natural horror to those venerable mouldering piles of antiquity. 
This species, being common to both continents, doubtless ex- 
tends to the arctic regions. It also inhabits Tartary, where, 
according to Pennant, “ the Mongols and natives almost pay it 
divine honours, because they attribute to this species the pre- 
servation of the founder of their empire, Cinghis Khan. That 
prince, with his small army, happened to be surprised 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 pursuers not to search there, as they thought it 
impossible that any man could be concealed in a place where 
that bird would perch. From thenceforth they held it to be 
sacred, and every one wore a plume of the feathers of this spe- 
cies on his head. To this day the Kalmucs continue the custom 
