622 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



d. Rectrices 12; tarsiia not longer than middle toe with, claw (sometimea much 

 shorter), densely feathered; tenth (apparent outermost) primary shorter 



than first; tail more than half as long as wing Glaucidium (p. 779). 



dd. Rectrices 10; tarsus longer than middle toe with claw, scantily haired or 

 bristled; tenth (apparent outermost) primary equal to or longer than firet; 



tail less than half as long as wing Micropallas (p. 806) . 



cc. Eighth and ninth « primaries longest, the tenth (apparent outermost) longer 

 than sixth;& tarsus more than twice as long as middle toe without claw; 

 outer toe much shorter than inner toe, larger (wing more than 150 mm.). 



Speotyto (p. 812). 



Genus CRYPTOGLAUX Richmond. 



Nyctala (not Nyctalus Bowdish, 1825) Brehm, Isis, bd. xxi, heft xii, 1828, 1271 



(Type, as fixed by Gray, 1855, Strix tengmalmi Gmelin.) 

 Nyctale « (emendation) Brehm, Handb. Naturg. Vog. Deutschl., 1831, 111. 

 Aegolius (not Aegolia Billberg, 1820) Kaup, Skizz. Entw.-Gesch. Naturl. Syst. 



Eur. Thierw., th. 1, 1829, 34. (Type, by original designation, Strix 



tengmalmi Gmelin.) 

 Scotophilus (not Scotophila Hvibner, 1816, nor of Leach, 1822) Swainson, Clasaif. 



Birds, ii, 1837, 217. (Type, Strix tengmalmi Gmelin.) 

 (?)Glaux Morris, in N. Wood's Naturalist, ii, no. 9, 1837, 123. (Types, G. 



tengmalmi Morris [=Strix tengmalmi Gmelin?] and G. nudipes Morris [=?]). 

 Cryptoglaux ^ Richmond, Auk, xviii, April, 1901, 193. (Type, Strix tengmalmi 



Gmelin.) 

 Microscops Buturlin, Nacha Okhota, St. Petersb., Nov., 1910, 13. (Type, Strix 



acadica Gmelin.) 



Small Bubonidae (wing about 130-188 mm.) with minute or rudi- 

 mentary ear-tufts/ relatively very large head, very broad and flat 

 face, small eyes, excessively large and conspicuously asymmetrical 

 external ear-openings (the asymmetrj- involvmg even the skull itseK), 

 and (except in C. ridgwayi) feathered toes. 



BUI relatively small and weak; cere on top much shorter than 

 chord of culmen, nearly straight, slightly ascending basally. Nostril 

 rather small, oval or broadly elliptical, vertical, or obliquely vertical, 

 in anterior edge of cere. External ear-opening excessively large, 

 involving nearly the whole of the postocular portion of the head, 

 broadly oval, margined all round with a narrow dermal flap (widest 

 anteriorly), those of opposite sides conspicuously asymmetrical, the 

 ear-orifice on left side entirely below the median transverse liga- 

 mentous bridge, that on right side mostly above the bridge. Wing 

 relatively large, with longest primaries exceeding distal secondaries 



o Second and third from outside. 



t> Fifth from outside. 



c "Von vuKxaXoc, ein Freund der Nacht." (Brehm.) 



d Kpunxog, hidden, and j-Aayf, an owl. (Richmond.) 



« At first sight there are apparently no ear-tufts, but a close examination will reveal 

 distinct though very minute indications of them. In the very closely related (and 

 possibly not really distinct) South American genus Gisella (see p. 619) the ear-tufts 

 are still more obvious. 



