STRIX. 3 
(Boucard), San José (v. Frantzius?, Zeledon **, Cherrie 8); Panama (Arcé, in Mus. 
Brit.).—Sovuta AMERIcA generally to Brazil, Argentina and Chili #4. 
Like the rest of the world, Mexico and Central America have their White Owl, which 
is a fairly common bird throughout the country, and probably resident wherever it is 
found. Its habits are doubtless so like those of the bird of the Old World and of North 
America generally, so admirably described by Capt. Bendire!! and Dr. A. K. Fisher %, 
that an account of them need not be repeated here. Its food, according to Dr. Fisher, 
consists, to a very large extent, of mice and other small mammals, in a few cases of 
locusts, grasshoppers, and other insects, and in a still fewer of small birds. 
Strix flammea, in a wide sense, is a notoriously variable bird, and few authorities 
agree as to the extent to which local races should be recognized. Dr. Sharpe, in his 
elaborate paper published in Rowley’s ‘ Ornithological Miscellany,’ went further than 
his predecessors in uniting all but the most marked forms under the general title of 
Strix flammea. American authors usually employ Bonaparte’s name, S. flammea 
pratincola, for the North-American bird, tracing its range to Mexico. In Guatemala 
and the rest of Central America the form is distinguished as S. fammea guatemale, 
and the South-American as S. flammea perlata. Colour and size are the differential 
characters selected; these are most variable and, so far as we can see, only localized 
to a very partial extent. ‘The large series before us shows that Mexican birds are, 
like those of California, white-breasted individuals, those with the underparts fawn- 
colour occurring in about equal numbers. In Guatemala birds with fawn-coloured 
breasts are rather more common, and all are more or less tinged with this colour. In 
Costa Rica all are fawn-coloured; and one Panama bird resembles another from the 
Canca Valley, Colombia, in having a few cross-bands on the breast, thus showing a 
tendency to the colour of the bird of the island of Hispaniola. In size the Mexican 
birds have a rather larger average, those of the rest of Central America being less, the 
South-American bird being the smallest of the continental forms. 
For the American bird generally we use the oldest name, Strix perlata, applied by 
Lichtenstein to the Striz of Brazil}. We adopt this course as perhaps the most 
convenient, but admit that it seems hardly possible to state any character or characters 
by which all American birds can be distinguished from Strix flammea of the Old 
‘World. 
Fam, ASIONIDA. 
Sterni crista angusta, furculam summam haud attingente; fissuris sterni utrinque duabus. 
Eighteen genera are included in this family, which are distributed over nearly the 
whole world, every continent, every large island, and a great number of small ones 
including one or more Owls amongst their birds. In America thirteen genera are found, 
of which Nyctea and Surnia are hoveal, pnd do not come within our limits, and of the 
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