. Egyptian birds for the most part seen in the Nile Valley . L, SCREECH OWL Strix flammea ArabiCj Boma buda Plumage of upper-parts a tawny yellow, mottled, speckled,and pencilled with delicate grey, black and white ; face white,as are the under-parts; individuals vary in being lighter ordarker; huffish-white on chest, feet pinkish, beak length, 135 inches. Either of the two last English names are perhapsin this case more suitable than the first, as barnsin Egypt are scarce, whilst this owl is common,and is met with in temples and tombs fairlyfrequently. In the past it must alw
. Egyptian birds for the most part seen in the Nile Valley . L, SCREECH OWL Strix flammea ArabiCj Boma buda Plumage of upper-parts a tawny yellow, mottled, speckled,and pencilled with delicate grey, black and white ; face white,as are the under-parts; individuals vary in being lighter ordarker; huffish-white on chest, feet pinkish, beak length, 135 inches. Either of the two last English names are perhapsin this case more suitable than the first, as barnsin Egypt are scarce, whilst this owl is common,and is met with in temples and tombs fairlyfrequently. In the past it must always have been a commonbird, as it is one of the few quite easily identifiedbirds used in hieroglyphics (in spite of which, tomy astonishment, in a recent work on Egypt thisowl is called the Horned Owl). The Barn Owl has practically a world-wide range,being found not only in Europe but Africa, Asia,Australia, and America, and though examples fromcertain localities do show some variation in plumage,it is still always unmistakably the Barn Owl. It 34 BARN-OWL. BARN OWL, WHITE OWL, SCREECH OWL 35 is, however, not met with within the Arctic home its food is nearly entirely mice, but inEgypt it has no hedgerows to hunt, no large farm-yards and rich granaries, and though it does getsome mice it has to take lizards, an occasional smallbird, and sometimes fish, or even scraps of all the owls this has the softest, most silentflight, and this in itself is somewhat uncanny as itquite quietly passes close to you, and then dis-appears in the gloom, from which a little later maycome a terrifying screech as of a strangled is little room for wonder, then, that all simplefolk should have regarded this bird as evil-omened:and the old Scriptures have many references inthis spirit when describing places haunted, desolated,the abode of owls and dragons. To this day,in our own country, the feeling is evinced moststrangely in spite of all our modern cle
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