108 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



St7-ix assio, capite auriio, corpore ferriigineo, the Utile screech oul, Bartkam, Travels, 1791, 



289. 

 Bed Oivl, Penn., Arct. Zool. II, 1785, 231, pi. xi, fig. 1. 

 Mottled Owl, Penn., t. c. pi. xi, fig. 2. 



Strix nana, Gmel., S. N. I, i, 1788, 289.— Lath., lud. Orn. 1, 1790, 55 ; Gen. Hist. 1, 1821, 

 321.— DAUD.,Tr. Oru. II, 1800, 217.— Shaw, Geu. Zool. VII, 1809, 230.— Wils., 

 Am. Orn. Ill, 1M12, IG, pi. 19, fig. 1. 

 Jsio ncema. Less., Man. Orn. I, 1827, 117. — Bonap., Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, 543. 

 Otus ncevius, Cuv., Reg. Anim. ed. 2, 1829, 241. 

 Surnia jicnia, James., ed. Wils. I, 1831, 96, 99. 

 Btiho siriaius, Vieill., Ois. Am. Sept. 1, 1807, 54, pi. 21. 

 " Ephialites ocreata, Light., in Mus. Berol." 



" Scops asio ya.T. viaccalli", Hexshaw, Orn. Wheeler's Exp. 1874, 135 (GiZa R., Camp 

 Grant, and San Pedro, Arizona) ; ib. 4to Rep. 1875,405 {Arizona and New Mexico). 



Without repeating here a detailed description of the plumages of 

 this form, for which the reader is referred to the " History of North 

 American Birds" (vol. iii, pp. 49-51), a few remarks concerning local 

 and. geographical variations may sufiBce. The most noteworthy point 

 in this connection is the apparently established fact that while this 

 bird very frequently varies to bright lateritiousrufous in the East- 

 ern Province of the United States (this erythrismal phase even very 

 largely predominating in some localities*), it seems never to assume this 

 plumage in the Western States and Territories. At the same time, 

 there seems to be no difference whatever in specimens of the gray phase 

 from the Atlantic States and California, as well as other of the Western 

 States and Territories, if we except those districts inhabited by different 

 races {i. e., kennicotti, maxivellicv, etc.). There are now before me the fol- 

 lowing specimens representing the adult of this phase, belonging to my 

 own collection: a pair from Nicasio, California, a male from Sacramento, 

 a male from Arizona (San Pedro Eiver), a female from Southern Illinois, 

 a male from the District of Columbia, and another from Virginia. Of 

 these, the two California specimens and the examples from Illinois and 

 Virginia are so precisely similar that were their labels taken off or inter- 

 changed it would not be possible to distinguish them by colors and 

 markings. The Arizona example differs solely in being of a purer ash- 

 gray shade, the others being of a more brownish-gray; the Sacramento 

 specimen is similar to those from Nicasio, only lighter-colored, being a 

 midsummer specimen, in faded plumage, while the others were killed in 

 October, and consequently in possession of the new fall dress. The 

 skin from the District of Columbia differs from the others in having a 

 very decided cinnamon cast to the plumage, thereby exhibiting a ten- 



* Whether the relative number of specinieus of the two phases in a given locality 

 has anything to do with geographical or climatic considerations, I have not the mate- 

 rial to enable me to determine. Certain it is, however, that while in the States 

 bordering the Atlantic the gray phase is generally quite as common as the other, it is 

 so extremely rare in the Lower Wabash Valley that I have seen there but two indi- 

 viduals in the course of many years' observation, the red specimens constituting 

 fully 95 per cent, of all. This has also been the experience of others whom I have 

 questioned regarding the matter. 



