SOUTHERN SCREECH OWL 259 



OTUS ASIO ASIO (Linnaeus) 



SOUTHERN SCREECH OWL 



HABITS 



The separation of this race from the other two eastern races of the 

 screech owls was suggested by Outram Bangs (1930), and the sugges- 

 tion was followed in the 1931 Check-List. He gives as the range of 

 this race: "In the east from Georgia north to Virginia, and west to 

 western Tennessee, southern Illinois, southeastern Kansas, Oklahoma, 

 Arkansas, Louisiana, etc. Intergradation in the east takes place 

 gradually in the region lying between Virginia and New Jersey." He 

 shows clearly that the birds from tins intermediate region are smaller 

 than naevius and larger than jloridanus, as might be expected. But 

 his remarks on the color characters are not so convincing. He gives 

 as the color characters of naevius: "Under parts in both phases, the 

 red and the gray, coarsely marked with much white intermixed and 

 with a large area of plain white in the middle of the belly." Of 

 jloridanus he says: "In markings, standing off sharply from the other 

 two forms, in that the under parts are much more heavily and finely 

 penciled with less intermixture of white and with less white in middle 

 of belly." He claims for his proposed race, 0. a. asio, that it is "in 

 color and markings quite the same as 0. a. naevius." Then he admits 

 that "two birds from Georgia (Broro Neck and Sapelo Island) are 

 somewhat intermediate in color, but are larger than in jloridanus and 

 one bird out of six from southern South Carolina, though much larger 

 than Florida examples, somewhat resembles them in markings." 



It seems to me that he has shown conclusively that his proposed 

 race is strictly intermediate in size, and, at least partially, intermediate 

 in coloration. Neither the northern nor the southern race is any- 

 where nearly uniform, or constant, in coloration; there is great 

 individual variation, as I have noted in the same series that Mr. 

 Bangs examined. As to size, it is a well known fact that in this and 

 other species there is gradual reduction in size from the largest north- 

 ern birds to the smallest southern birds; halfway between these two 

 extremes would seem to be the logical place to divide the species into 

 two subspecies; if we name three subspecies there is no reason why we 

 should not subsequently name two more, and so on indefinitely. As 

 I do not think it wise to recognize intermediates in nomenclature, I 

 prefer Mr. Ridgway's treatment of the case. He (1914) recognizes no 

 difference, worthy of recognition in nomenclature, between asio and 

 jloridanus as differentiated by Mr. Bangs; and he includes under the 

 name of Florida screech owl (Otus asio asio) all the birds included in 

 the two more southern races suggested by Mr. Bangs. 



Nesting. — The nesting habits of this owl are apparently no different 

 from those of the other eastern races. Francis M. Weston has sent 



