268 NEW SPECIES OF MEGASCOPS. 



C.70, tail 3.50, culineu .60, tarsus 1.15 (naked below, in frout, for ouly 

 .15), middle toe .87. 



2. Megascops hastatus, sp.uov. 



Sco2)s bm^ilianus S. guatemala' ( Sharpe) Ridc.w., Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus., i, 1878, 

 99-102 (part; Mazatlan, Mexico). 

 Sp. Char.— Most like *S^. bmsilianus (G-M), bat inach lighter and 

 grayer above, with the darker marking.s more distinct and less linear, 

 those on the pileuni and hind neck in the form of irregularly rhomboid 

 or hastate spots ; lower parts much more delicately and less reguhirly 

 barred, and with very little, if any, ochraceous on the underlying por- 

 tion of the plumage : feet proportionally smaller. 



Adult (type, No. 85673, U. S. Xat. Mus., '-La Paz, Lower Cali- 

 fornia, winter of 1877"*).— Prevailing color above light grayish-brown, 

 but this much broken by a coarse mottling of lighter (becoming 

 nearly brownish-white on forehead aud sides of crown), and very dis- 

 tinctly marked, especially on pileum, hind-neck, and back, with irregu- 

 lar spots of blackish, these sometimes approaching a rhomboid or 

 hastate form ; lowermost middle aud greater wing-coverts with outer 

 webs mostly white ; primary-coverts banded with dusky and pale 

 browuish-buffy (about four bands of each color) -, outer webs of pri- 

 maries spotted with buffy-whitish (changing to pale buffy-brown on 

 shorter quills) ; tail banded with grayish-dusky and grayish-buff'y. 

 Face dull grayish- white, narrowly and rather indistinctly barred with 

 grayish-brown, the outer border tinged with pale brown, and, laterally, 

 marked with an indistinct or broken bar or -stripe of brownish-black 

 across side of head. Lower parts dull white, narrowly and very irregu- 

 larly barred or vermiculated with dusky-brown, two bars of the latter 

 color often inclo.sing a broader oue of pale brown, especially on flanks 5 

 most of the feathers of the under surface marked with irregular brown- 

 ish-black mesial streaks, broadest and most conspicuous on the chest; 

 legs dull whitish barred with dusky-brown. Wing 6.10, tail 3.40, cul- 

 men .45, tarsus 1.25, middle toe .75. 



Another specimen (No. 23793, Mazatlau, John Xantus) is very simi- 

 lar to the type, but has the plumage pervaded by a more decided brown- 

 ish tinge, but the difference is so slight as to be noticeable only on 

 actual comparison. Wing 6.00, tail 3.50, culmen .45, tarsus 1.25, middle 

 toe .75.t 



* Probably from Mazatlau. The specimen was purchased by Mr. E. W. Nelson in 

 Sau Francisco from a collector who had recently returned from Lower California, 

 and assured him that all the birds which Mr. Nelson purchased were from La Paz. 

 Since, however, the lot included Centurus eleyans (four specimens), and Merida grayi, 

 species which occur abundantly at Mazatlan, on the opposite shore of the Gulf of 

 California, but have not yet been recorded from the peninsula, there is a strong 

 probability of error as to the locality. 



t Specimen remeasured, some of the measurements previously recorded being in- 

 correct. 



