of a Type to Linnean Genera. 101 
ence tothat number. Turning thereto we further read,“ Ha- 
bitat in sylvis frequens per Sueciam ;” and then, coming to the 
second edition of the ‘ Fauna’ (1761), we have (p. 26) :— 
Nile SURI Stridulanl wes |, Fn. 55.” 
—this being Linneus’s mode of quoting the former edition of 
his work, and one more addition :— 
“ Svecis Skrik Uggla.” 
Now no one can doubt what Linnzus meant by this bird. 
His diagnosis may not be the most accurate ; but the “ Skrik 
Uggla” of the Swedes, the Owl which is common in the 
forests throughout Sweden—that is, except in the then little- 
known north of that country—is just as surely our Brown or 
Tawny Owl as Brisson’s “ Chathuant” is. Thus the last, or 
Brisson’s type of Stria, is also the S. stridula of Linnzeus ; for 
I need not say that in both of the subsequent editions of the 
‘Systema Nature’ (10th and 12th) the same species retains 
that name ; but I must add that if there be any truth in the 
opinions I have above advanced, this, and this only, can be 
interpreted as the Linnean type of the genus Sériz ; for, as 
Linneus himself rightly states, itis emphatically the “ Strix” 
of Gesner, of Aldrovandus, of Willughby, and of Ray. 
Finally, to clinch the whole matter, Linneus himself asserts 
in the 12th edition that it is the “ Strix” of Brisson. 
In rectifying my error, I wish it were possible for me to prove 
as clearly what the S. aluco of Linnzus really was; but the 
matter does not very much signify, and it will be unnecessary 
for me here to repeat each step of the investigation. <A very . 
little trouble will show that this species is founded upon 
an Owl which, he tells us (Gilandska och Gothlandska Resa, 
p- 69), he, on the 5th of June, 1741, had an opportunity of 
describing at the woodman’s (hos Skogwachtaren) at Ahrby, 
in the south of Giland; and the description which he there 
gives 1s but a briefer form of that which appeared five years 
afterwards in the ‘Fauna.’ I express no very decided opinion ; 
but my impression is that the bird was most likely a Barn- 
Owl*, a species known to be rare in Sweden and its islands, 
* He writes “ Remiges 1, 2. 3. sensim breviores.”” Now this is not ab- 
solutely true of the Barn-Owl, wherein the second primary is longer than 






