WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 
Ill 
SUBGENUS III. — STRIX, SAVIGNV. 
34. STRIX FLAMMEA, LINNAEUS WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 
WILSON, PLATE L. FIG. II. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
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 favourite recesses in this 
part of the world, which it so much affects 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 minds, a cast of supernatural horror 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 Monguls and natives 
almost pay it divine honours, because they attribute to 
this species the preservation of the founder of their 
empire, Ginghis 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 species on his head. To this day 
the Kaimucs 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 sum- 
mer. 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, 
Arctic Zoology , p. 235. 
