302 HISTORY OF THE 



above usually with blackish shaft streaks, those beueatli usually with five trans- 

 verse bars; primaries spotted with whitish, and outer webs of the lower row of 

 scapulars the same, edged terminally with black. Tail obscurely banded." 



Megascops asio (Linn.). 



SCREECH OWL. 

 PLATE XX. 



Kesident; abundant. Begin laying early in March. 



B. 49. R. 402. C. 46.5. G. 186, 142. U. 373. 



Habitat. Temperate eastern North America; south to 

 Georgia and west to the Great Plains. 



Sp. Char. "Dichromatic; the plumage presenting two distinct phases at all 

 ages and seasons; one grayish, the other rufous." 



Grayish Plumage. 



"■Adult: Ground color above brownish cinereous, palest on the head, purest 

 ashy on the wings, minutely mottled with fine zigzag transverse bars of black, 

 each feather with a medial ragged stripe of the same along the shaft. Inner 

 webs of ear tufts, outer webs of scapulars, and oval spots occupying most of 

 the outer webs of the two or three lower feathers of the middle and secondary 

 wing coverts, white, forming (except on the first) conspicuous spots, those of 

 the scapulars bordered with black; secondaries crossed with about seven regular 

 paler bands, each enclosing a more irregular dusky one; the ground color, how- 

 ever, is so mottled with grayish, and the paler bands with dusky, that they are 

 by no means sharply defined or conspicuous, though they are very regular; 

 alula and primary coverts more sharply barred with cream colored spots, those 

 on the former nearly white; primaries with broad quadrate spots of creamy 

 white on outer webs, these forming from seven (male) to eight (female) trans- 

 verse bands, the last of which is not terminal. Tail more irregularly mottled 

 than the wings and crossed by seven (male) to eight (female) narrow obsolete 

 ( but continuous) pale bands. 'Eyebrows' white, the feathers bordered with dusky 

 (most broadly so in male); cheeks, ear coverts and lower throat dull white, with 

 transverse bars of blackish (most numerous in the male); chin immaculate; 

 upper eyelids dark brown; facial black; neck and jugulum like the cheeks, but 

 more strongly barred, and with blackish along the shaft. Ground color of the 

 lower parts white, each feather with a medial stripe of black, this throwing off 

 distinct bars to the edge of the feather; the medial black is largest on sides of 

 the breast, where it expands into very large conspicuous spots, having a slight 

 rusty exterior suffusion; the abdomen medially, the anal region and the lower 

 tail coverts are almost unvaried white. Tibia and tarsi in the male dull white, 

 much barred transversely with blackish; in the female pale ochraceous, more 

 sparsely barred with dark brownish. Lining of the wing creamy white, varied 

 only along the edge; light bars on under surface of primaries very obsolete." 



Rufeseent Plumage. 

 ^^ Adult: General pattern of the preceding, but the grayish tints replaced by 

 lateritious rufous, very fine and bright, with a slight vinaceous cast; this Is uni- 

 form, and shows no trace of the transverse black mottling; there are, however. 



