SPECIES 4. STRIX FLAMMEA.

WHITE, OR BARN OWL.

[Plate L.-Fig. 2.]

LATH. 1, 158.-Arct. Zool. p. 235, No. 124.-Phil. Trans. 111, 138.-L'Effraie, ou la Fresaie, BUFF. 1, 366, pl. 26. Pl. enl. 440.-BEWICK's British Birds, 1, p. 89.-Common Owl, TURT. Syst. p. 170.-PEALE'S Museum, No. 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 be owing to the want of those favourite recesses, which it so much affects in the eastern continent. The multitudes of old ruined castles, towers, monasteries 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 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, 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 species on his head. To this day the Kalmucs 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 summer. 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, and was once caught in a barn in my neighbourhood. European writers inform us, that it makes no nest; but deposits its eggs in the holes of walls, and lays five or six of a whitish colour; is said to feed on mice and small birds, which, like the most of its tribe, it swallows whole, and afterwards emits the bones, feathers, and other indigestible parts, at its mouth, in the form of small round cakes, which are often found in the empty buildings it frequents. During its repose it is said to make a blowing noise, resembling the snoring of a man.†

In the

It is distinguished in England by various names, the Barn Owl, the Church Owl, Gillihowlet and Screech Owl. lowlands of Scotland it is universally called the Hoolet.

The White or Barn Owl is fourteen inches long, and upwards of three feet six inches in extent; bill a whitish horn colour, longer than is usual among its tribe; space surrounding each eye remarkably concave, the radiating feathers meeting in a high projecting ridge, arching from the bill upwards; between these lies a thick tuft of bright tawny feathers, that are scarcely seen unless the ridges be separated; face white, surrounded by a border of narrow, thickset, velvetty feathers, of a reddish cream colour at the tip, pure silvery white below, and finely shafted with black; whole upper parts a bright tawny yellow, thickly sprinkled with whitish and pale purple, and beautifully interspersed with larger drops of white, each feather of the back and wing-coverts ending in an oblong spot of white, bounded by black; head large, tumid; sides of the neck pale yellow ochre, thinly sprinkled with small touches of dusky; primaries and secondaries the same, thinly barred and thickly sprinkled with † Bewick, 1, p. 90.

* Arct. Zool. p. 235.

dull purplish brown; tail two inches shorter than the tips of the wings, even, or very slightly forked, pale yellowish, crossed with five bars of brown, and thickly dotted with the same; whole lower parts pure white, thinly interspersed with small round spots of blackish; thighs the same, legs long, thinly covered with short white down, nearly to the feet, which are of a dirty white, and thickly warted; toes thinly clad with white hairs; legs and feet large and clumsy. The ridge or shoulder of the wing is tinged with bright orange brown. The aged bird is more white; in some, the spots of black on the breast are wanting, and the colour below a pale yellow; in others a pure white.

The female measures fifteen inches and a half in length, and three feet eight inches in extent; is much darker above; the lower parts tinged with tawny, and marked also with round spots of black. One of these was lately sent me, which was shot on the border of the meadows below Philadelphia. Its stomach contained the mangled carcasses of four large meadow mice, hair, bones and all. The common practice of most Owls is, after breaking the bones, to swallow the mouse entire; the bones, hair, and other indigestible parts, are afterwards discharged from the mouth, in large roundish dry balls, that are frequently met with in such places as these birds usually haunt.

As the Meadow-mouse is so eagerly sought after by those birds, and also by great numbers of Hawks, which regularly, at the commencement of winter, resort to the meadows below Philadelphia, and to the marshes along the seashore, for the purpose of feeding on these little animals, some account of them may not be improper in this place. Fig. 3 represents the Meadow-mouse drawn by the same scale, viz. reduced to one half its natural dimensions. This species appears not to have been taken notice of by Turton, in his translation of Gmelin's LinFrom the nose to the insertion of the tail it measures four inches; the tail is between three quarters and an inch long, hairy, and usually curves upwards; the fore feet are short, fivetoed, the inner toe very short, but furnished with a claw; hind feet also five-toed; the ears are shorter than the fur, through

næus.

which, though large, they are scarcely noticeable; the nose is blunt; the colour of the back is dark brown, that of the belly hoary; the fur is long and extremely fine; the hind feet are placed very far back, and are also short; the eyes exceeding small. This mischievous creature is a great pest to the meadows, burrowing in them in every direction; but is particularly injurious to the imbankments raised along the river, perforating them in numerous directions, and admitting the water, which afterwards increases to dangerous breaches, inundating large extents of these low grounds, and thus becoming the instruments of their own destruction. In their general figure they bear great resemblance to the common musk-rat, and, like them, swim and dive well. They feed on the bulbous roots of plants, and also on garlic, of which they are remarkably fond.*

Another favourite prey of most of our Owls is the bat, one species of which is represented at fig. 4, as it hung during the day in the woods where I found it. This also appears to be a nondescript. The length of this bat, from the nose to the tip of the tail, is four inches; the tail itself is as long as the body, but generally curls up inwards; the general colour is a bright iron

*As Wilson conjectured, this animal was a nondescript. It being a Campagnol, it may be classed under the name of Arvicola Pennsylvanicus; as it is the same animal which was introduced into my catalogue of Mammalia, under that trivial denomination. As far as our information extends, the female brings forth only two young at a litter. Her two teats are inguinal; and the young, by holding on to them, are transported by the mother whithersoever she goes-that is, when they are inclined to accompany her; when dragged along, their position is between her hind legs; and she can run with them hanging to her, as stated, with considerable swiftness.

Dr. Leach, in the Zoological Miscellany, vol. 1, p. 60, figured and described a Campagnol, which had been received from Hudson's Bay. This animal, which was named A. xanthognatha, has been mistaken, by some naturalists, for the present species, which is not half its size: the Fulvous-cheeked Campagnol measures, from the tip of its nose to the base of its tail, at least nine inches, whilst the admeasurement of ours is not more than four inches. Dr. Leach's description is too imperfect: it lacks those details which are essential in discriminating species. The size of his animal we infer from his figure, which he says is "rather less than half of the natural size."—G. Ord.

gray, the fur being of a reddish cream at bottom, then strongly tinged with lake, and minutely tipt with white; the ears are scarcely half an inch long, with two slight valves; the nostrils are somewhat tubular; fore teeth in the upper jaw, none—in the lower, four, not reckoning the tusks; the eyes are very small black points; the chin, upper part of the breast and head, are of a plain reddish cream colour; the wings have a single hook or claw each, and are so constructed, that the animal may hang either with its head or tail downward. I have several times found two hanging fast locked together behind a leaf, the hook of one fixed in the mouth of the other; the hind feet are furnished with five toes, sharp-clawed; the membrane of the wings is dusky, shafts light brown; extent twelve inches. In a cave, not far from Carlisle in Pennsylvania, I found a number of these bats in the depth of winter, in very severe weather; they were lying on the projecting shelves of the rocks, and when the brand of fire was held near them, wrinkled up their mouths, showing their teeth; when held in the hand for a short time, they became active, and after being carried into a stove room, flew about as lively as ever.*

This species Dr. Godman calls the Vespertilio noveboracensis of Linnæus. See his American Natural History, vol. 1, p. 48. Wilson, it should seem, was of a different opinion.