94 bulletin: museum of compakative zoology. 



Scops RiDGWAT, Loc. cit. (Cape St. Lucas; crit.). 



Megascops asio trichopsis (not Scops tric/iopsis Wagler) Bryant, Proc. Calif. Acad. 

 Sci., 2d ser., IL 1889, 284 (Cape Region ; 1 Victoria Mts., etc.). 



Specific Characters: — Most nearly like M. vimiceus Brewster.i but smaller, the 

 general coloring paler and less reddish, the crown and outer surfaces of tlie wings 

 lighter, the primaries with broad, well-defined light bars on both webs, the abdomen 

 and flanks decidedly wliiter, tlie under tail coverts nearly pure white and practically 

 without mesial streaks, the featliering of the legs sliorter and sparser. 



<? ad. (Xo. 47,o01, collection of William Brewster, Santa Anita, Lower Califor- 

 nia, June 3, 18U6 ; Loye Miller). 2 Upper parts drab, tinged with pinkish rusty on 

 the back, inclining to asliy on the pileum and outer surfaces of the wings, to ashy 

 white on the lores and sides of the crown, all the feathers except the primaries 

 faintly vermiculated with reddish brown, those of the forehead, "ear tufts," back, 

 rump, scapulars, and wing coverts with narrow shaft streaks of clove brown ; pri- 

 maries, secondaries, and tail-feathers barred with wood-brown, the bars on the tail 

 narrow and distinct, excepting near the tips of the feathers, where they are broken 

 and confused, tliose of the wings broad and distinct on both webs of all the pri- 

 maries, but only faintly defined on the inner secondaries ; outer scapulars, greater 

 wing coverts, and outer primaries, with their exposed outer edges, hoary white ; 

 cheeks, throat, and breast pale ashy with the faintest possible suffusion of pinkish 

 or rusty; abdomen, flanks, and crissum soiled white or ashy white; most of the 

 feathers of the under parts with exceedingly fine, wavy, transverse lines of reddish 

 brown, those of the throat, breast, and sides (but not of the under tail coverts nor 

 of the center of the abdomen) with narrow, sharply-defined, mesial streaks of dark 

 clove brown; tibiae tinged with fulvous and barred with reddish brown; under 

 wing coverts pale fulvous heavily marked with dark brown ; tarsi rusty white with 

 a few reddish brown spots; toes naked nearly to their bases. "Wing, 5.35; tail, 

 2.72; tarsus, L.32; middle toe, .65; bill, length from nostril, .32; depth at nostril, 

 .40; longest feathers of " ear tufts," .90. 



Two young birds (No. 16,932 ^ and No. 16,933 9, U. S. National 

 Museum Collection, Cape St. Lucas; J. Xantus), fully grown but still in 

 Juvenal plumage, differ from the adult specimen just described in being much 

 darker, browner, and more uniformly colored, in lacking all trace of mesial or 

 shaft streaks on the feathers of the body, and in having the broad, light bars 

 on the wing quills more rusty and nearly as pronounced and well defined on 

 both webs of all the secondaries as on those of the j)rimaries. The upper parts 

 are faded reddish brown (not far from russet) with obscure, transverse lines of 

 whitish on the pileum, back, and wing coverts; the cheeks, throat, and under 

 pai'ts generally are everywhere crossed by bands of reddish brown, which are 

 much narrower than the brownish-white interspaces; the feathering of the 

 legs is even scantier than in the mature bird. 



On comparing both old and young with specimens in corresponding plumages 

 of bendirei, trichopsis, and cineraceus, the only representatives of the M. asio 



1 Type locality: Durasno, Chihuahua, Mexico; see Auk, V. 1888, 88. 



2 This specimen was purchased from Mr. C. K. Worthen. 



