NO. 1116. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



587 



"Mr. Gould informs me, that 'tliis sjiecies lias most of the essential 

 characters of the common short-eared owl of Europe {Sfrix brachyota), 

 but differs from it, aiid all the other members of the grouj), in its smaller 

 size and darker colouring.' 



" The lesser j^roportional size of the fulvous marks on the first prima- 

 ries, and on the tail, and the peculiar transverse brown marks on the 

 feathers of the belly, easily distinguish it from the commoFi short-eared 

 owl. The specimen described is a male bird." (Darwin.) 



This local form of the cosmopolitan A. accipUrmus is much smaller 

 than the continental bird, and rather darker in color than the darkest 

 specimens of the latter. The markings on the lower parts, especially on 

 the sides, flanks, abdomen, and under tail-coverts, instead of being 

 simply linear, are complicated by transverse bars which coalesce with 

 the longitudinal stripes, producing something like a "herring bone" 

 pattern, though some of the markings are distinctly hastate. A ten- 

 dency to similar markings is very rarely seen in A. accipltrinusj but 

 in A. galapagoensis they are exaggerated and constant. 



Measurements of Asio galapagoensis. 



Family BUTEONID^. 



Genus BUTEO, Cuvier. 



Buteo, Cuvier, Lef. Anat. Comp., I, Pt. ii, Ois., 1799-1800. 

 Linnaeus. 



Type, Falco huteo, 



Range. — Cosmopolitan (except Australia, New Zealand, and parts of 

 Polynesia). Galapagos Archipelago (one peculiar species, closely 

 related to a widely dispersed continental American species). 



BUTEO GALAPAGOENSIS (Gould). 



Pohjhorus rjalapagoensis, Gould, Proc. Zool. 8oc., Pt. v, 1837, p. 9 (Galapagos 

 Islands; collection Zool. Soc). 



Craxirex galapagoensis, Gould, Zool. Voy. Beagle, III, Birds, 1841, p. 23, pi. ii 

 (James Island). — Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1870, p. 323 (Inde- 

 fatigable and Abingdon islands). 



Buteo gidapagoensis, Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XII, 1889, pp. 113, 120, 121, 

 122, 123, 124, 128 (Indefatigable, Chatham, and Abingdon islands). 



Ihiteo galapagensis, Sundevall, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1871, p. 125. — Sclater and 

 Salvin, Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, p. 119.— Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., I, 

 1874, p. 170.— Salvin, Trans. Zool. Soc, IX, Pt. ix, 1876, p. 495 (Indefatiga- 

 ble and Abingdon islands). 



"Buteo leueops, Gray, Cat. Acccpite, 1848, p. 36" (Sharpe). 



PoecUopternis infulatus, Kaup, Contr. Orn., 1850, p. 76 (Galapagos Islands; col- 

 lection Brit. Mus. ;=juv.). 



