BUBONIC^ THE OWLS. 407 



SUBGENUS Brachyotus GOULD. 

 Asio accipitrinus (Pall.) 



SHORT EARED OWL. 



Popular synonyms. Marsh Owl; Meadow Owl; Prairie Owl. 



Strixaccipitrina PALL. Reise. Russ. Reichs. i, 1771-76, 455. 

 Asio accipitrinus NEWT. ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. i, 1872, 163. RIDGW. Norn. N. Am. B. 



1881. No. 396. COUES, 2d Check List, 1882, No. 473. 

 Strix brachyatus FOEST. Phil. Trans. Ixii, 1772, 384. WILS. Am. Orn. iv, 1812, 64, pi. 33, 



fig. 3. NUTT. Man. i, ia32. 132, AUD. Orn. Biog. v, 1839, 273, pi. 432. 

 Otus brachyotus BOIE, 1822. AUD. Synop. 1839, 28; B. Am. i, 1840, pi. 38. 

 Otus (Brachyotus) brachyotus B. B. & R. Hist. N. Am. B. iii,1874.22. 

 Strix palustris BECHST. Nat. Deutschl. ii, 1791, 344. 

 Brachyotus palustris BP. 1838. COUES, Key, 1872, 204; Check List, 1874, No. 321; B. N. 



W. 1874.306. 

 Brachyotus cassmi BREWEK, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 1856, 321. CASS. in Baird's 



B. N. Am. 1858, 54. BAIKD, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, No. 52. 



HAB. Nearly cosmopolitan; whole Northern Hemisphere, including Sandwich 

 Islands, and all of America, from Arctic coast to Cape Horn. (Replaced, however, in 

 Porto Rico and Galapagos by A. portoricensis and A. galapagoensis, respectively.) 



SP. CHAR, Adult. Ground-color of the head, neck, back, scapulars, rump, and lower 

 parts, pale ochraceous; each feather (except on the rump) with a median longitudinal 

 stripe of blackish brown this broadest on the scapulars; on the back, nape, occiput, and 

 juguhim, the two colors about equal; on the lower parts, the stripes grow narrower pos- 

 teriorly, those on the abdomen and sides being in the form of narrow lines. The flanks, 

 legs, anal region, and lower tail coverts are always perfectly immaculate; the legs most 

 deeply ochraceous, the lower tail-coverts nearly pure white. The rump has indistinct 

 crescen tic marks of brownish. The wings are variegated with the general dusky and 

 ochraceous tints, but the markings are more irregular, the yellowish in form of indenta- 

 tions or confluent spots, approaching the shafts from the edge broadest on the outer 

 webs. Secondaries crossed by about five bands of ochraceous, the last terminal; pri- 

 mary coverts plain blackish brown, with one or two poorly defined transverse series of 

 ochraceous spots on the basal portion. Primaries ochraceous on the basal two thirds, 

 the terminal portion clear dark brown, the tips (broadly) pale brownish yellowish, this 

 becoming obsolete on the longest; the dusky extends toward the bases, in three to five 

 irregularly transverse series of quadrate spots on the outer webs, leaving, however, a 

 large basal area plain ochraceous, this somewhat more whitish anteriorly. The ground- 

 color of the tail is ochraceous, becoming whitish exteriorly and terminally, crossed by 

 five broad bands (about equaling the ochraccou?, but becoming narrower toward outer 

 feathers) of blackish brown; on the middle feathers, the ochraceous spots enclose 

 smaller, central transverse spots of blackish; the terminal ochraceous band is broadest. 

 Eyebrows, lores, chin, and throat soiled white, the loral bristles with black shafts; face 

 dingy ochraceous white, feathers with darker shafts; eye broadly encircled with black. 

 Postorbital circle minutely speckled with pale ochraceous and blackish, except im- 

 mediately behind the ear, where for about an inch it is uniform dusky. Lining of the 

 wing immaculate delicate yellowish white; terminal half of under primary coverts clear 

 blackish brown; under surface of primaries plain delicate ochraceous white; ends and 

 one or two very broad anterior bands, dusky. Wing, 11.80-13.00; tail, 5. 80-6. 10; culmen, 

 .60-.65; tarsus, 1.75; middle toe, 1.20. 



