BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 635 



phalanges and under side) similarly clothed, the distal feathers over- 

 lapping base of claws. 



Coloration. — Dusky grayish brown, or sooty, and grayish white, 

 the former predominating above, the latter prevailing below; the 

 upper parts varied by irregular markings having a transverse tend- 

 ency, the lower parts with the darker markings in the form of 

 ragged longitudinal stripes giving way to transverse bars on flanks; 

 face grayish white with narrow concentric rings of dusky; bill pale 

 yellow; iris lemon yellow. 



Range. — Boreal forests of Northern Hemisphere. (Monotypic.) 



KEY TO THE SUBSPECIES OF SCOTIAPTEX NEBULOSA. 



a. Coloration darker, with darker stripes less evident above, less sharply defined 

 below, the white of under parts more barred or mottled. (Northern North 

 America) Scotiaptex nebulosa nebulosa (p. 635). 



aa. Coloration paler, with darker stripes distinct, both above and l^elow, the white of 

 under parts to a great extent immaculate. (Northern Europe and Asia.) 



Scotiaptex nebulosa lapponioa (extralimital).<* 



SCOTIAPTEX NEBULOSA NEBULOSA (Forster). 



GEEAT GRAY OWL. 



Adults (sexes alike). — General color of upper parts dusky grayish 

 brown or sooty, broken by transverse motthngs (mostly on edges of 



o Strix lapponica Thunberg, K. Vet.-Ak. nya Handb., xix, 1798, 184 (Lappmark); 

 Naumann, Vog. Deutschl., Nachtr., 1847, pi. 349. — Zflula lapponica Lesson, Man. 

 d'Om., i, 1827, 113. — Surnia cinerea Gould, Birds Europe, i, pt. 14, Sept. 1, 1835, pi. 42 

 and text. — Syrnium lapponicum Strickland, Orn. Syn., i, 1855, 188; Dresser, Birds 

 Europe, V, 1878, pi. 308 and text; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus.,u, 1875, 254. — [Syrnium 

 cinereuTn] var. lapponicum Ridgway, in Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Hist. N. Am. 

 Birds, iii, 1874, 29. — Scotiaptex cinerea lapponicum Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. N. H., xxi, 

 1905, 245 (Marcova, n. e. Siberia). — Scotiaptex cinerea lapponica American Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union, Suppl. to Check List, 1889, 21; Abridged Check List, 1889, and Check 

 List, 2 ed., 1895, no. 370a. — Strix cinerea lapponica Coues, Check List, 2d ed., 1882, 

 no. 475. — Scotiaptex nebulosa lapponica Preble, North Am. Fauna, no. 22, 1902, 109. — 

 Asio lapponicus Seebohm, Ibis, 1882, 373 (Archangel, n. Russia). — Sfryx barbata Pal- 

 las, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat., i, 1826, 318, pi. 2 (eastern Siberia). — Syrnium dnereum (not 

 Strix cinerea Gmelin) Bonaparte, Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, 6, part; Fritsch, Vog. 

 Europ., 1869-70, pi. 12, fig. 6.— Strix microphthalmos Tyzenhauza, Orn. Pow., i, 1842, 

 86, frontispiece (new name for Strix lapponica Thunberg). 



Specimens from the Yukon delta, Alaska, formerly referred to this form, prove to 

 be rather light-colored examples of 5. n. nebulosa. 



In Die Vogel der Palaarktischen Fauna, heft viii (bd. ii, 2), August, 1913, not seen 

 until after the above was in type. Dr. Hartert separates the Palaearctic representa- 

 tives of this species into three subspecies, aa follows: (1) Strix nebulosa lapponica 

 (p. 1014) ; northern Europe and western Siberia. (2) Stiix nebulosa barbata (p. 1016) ; 

 eastern Siberia. (3) Strix nebulosa sakhalinensis (p. 1016); Sakhalin M&nd {Syrnium 

 dnereum sakhalinense Buturlin, Journ. fiir Orn., July, 1907, 332, 334). It is possible 

 that the light colored examples from western Alaska, above referred to, may belong 

 to the East Siberian form {Scotiaptex nebulosa barbata), but comparison with examples 

 of the latter has not yet been made. 



