THE BAEN OWL. 
129 
is so noiseless that one is surprised to find them removed from one place 
to another without having heard the least sound. They disgorge their 
pellets with difficulty, although generally at a single effort, but I did not 
observe that this action was performed at any regular period. The 
examination of entire specimens has brought to light a remarkable and 
unvarying character in the feathers which fringe the operculum. In both 
the American and European sp'ecies the tubes of these feathers are very 
large ; but in the American bird the, shafts are obsolete, whereas in the 
European bird, each tube bears a very slender shaft, about half an inch 
long, and furnished with about a dozen filaments on each side, forming an 
elliptical or obovate feather. This character and the great difference in 
size, will suffice to distinguish the American bird, to which, it having been 
shewn to be distinct, in my Ornithological Biography, I have given the 
name of Strix Americana . 
White or Barn Owl, Strix fiammea , Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vi. p. 57. 
Strix flammea, Bonap. Syn,, p. 38. 
White or Barn Owl, Strix flammea, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 139. 
Barn Owl, Strix flammea , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. ii. p. 403 ; vol. v. p. 388. 
Feathers margining the operculum with the shaft and webs undeveloped. 
Bill pale greyish-yellow ; claws and scales brownish-yellow. General 
colour of upper parts greyish-broWn, with light yellowish-red interspersed, 
produced by very minute mottling ; each feather having .toward the end 
a central streak of deep brown, terminated by a small oblong greyish- 
white spot ; wings similarly coloured ; secondary coverts and outer edges 
of primary coverts with a large proportion of light brownish-red ; quills 
and tail transversely barred with brown ; lower parts pale brownish- 
red, fading anteriorly into white, each feather having a small dark brown 
spot at the tip. 
Closely allied to Strix flammea, but larger, and differing somewhat in 
colour, being generally darker, with the ruff red. A character by which 
they may always be distinguished is found in the operculum, the feathers 
margining which are in the present species reduced to their tubes, the 
shafts and filaments being wanting, whereas in the European species each 
tube bears a very slender shaft, about half an inch long, and furnished with 
about half a dozen filaments on each side. 
Male, 17, 42. Female, 18, 46. 
Vol. I. 
19 
