BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 653 



Aegolius (not of Kaiip, 1829, nor Aegolia Billberg, 1820) Keyserling and Blasius, 



Wirb. Eiir., Erstes Buch, 1840, pp. xxxii, 88. (Types, Strix olus Linnaeusand 



5. brachyotus Forster.) 

 Nyctalops Wagler, Isis, 1832, 1221. (Type, N. stygius Wagler.) 

 Brachyotus Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1837, 11, in text. (Type, Otus (Brachy. 



otus) galapagoensis Gould.) 

 Phasmoptynx Kaup, Isis, 1848, 769. (Type, Otus capensis Smith.) 

 Ascalaphus « (not Ascalaphia Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, 1837) Morris, in N. Wood's 



Naturalist, ii, no. 9, June, 1837, 123. (Type, A. auritus llorTis=Strix otus 



Linnaeus.) 



Medium-sized Bubonidse (wing about 290-340 mm.), witli distinct 

 (usually very conspicuous) ear tufts, enormously developed and con- 

 spicuously asymmetrical external ear openings (these occupying 

 much the greater part of the postocular region of the head, and con- 

 spicuously operculate anteriorly), relatively large, oval, obliquely 

 longitudinal nostrils, long, distinctly arched cere, and relatively small 

 bill and feet. 



Bill relatively weak, rather compressed; top of cere distinctly 

 arched, nearly as long as chord of culmen. Nostril large, broadly 

 elliptical or oval, obUquely horizontal, opening in anterior edge of 

 the laterally inflated cere, and showing a distinct cartilaginous shelf 

 just within the upper posterior margin. External ear openings exces- 

 sively large, occupying nearly the full height of the head, inversely 

 coma-shaped, the upper extremity narrow and recurved, the lower 

 broad, more or less rounded, and produced forward over basal half 

 (more or less) of malar region, the ear orifice opening (in left ear) 

 immediately above an obliquely transverse Hgamentous bridge or (in 

 right ear) between two such hgaments, the margin of the external 

 opening produced into a distinct dermal flap, widest in front, the two 

 ears conspicuously asymmetrical but the skuU symmetrical. Wing 

 long, with longest primaries exceeding distal secondaries by more 

 than one-third the total length of wing; tenth, ninth and tenth, eighth 

 and ninth, or seventh, eighth, and ninth ^ primaries longest, the tenth 

 (apparent outermost) sometimes shorter than seventh, more often a 

 little shorter than eighth; only the tenth or tenth and ninth with 

 inner web emarginated or sinuated. Tail about half as long as wing, 

 rounded. Feet relatively small; tarsus decidedly to much longer 

 than middle toe without claw, densely clothed, aU round, with soft 

 feathers, the toes usually feathered (except beneath and on terminal 

 phalanges), sometimes naked to base. 



Coloration (of American species). — Blackish brown, ochraceous, 

 bufFy, and whitish, the first predominating above, the lighter hues 

 prevailing beneath, the markings on under parts having a longitu- 



« 'AaKaka<f)oc, a bird, supposed to be a kind of owl. (Richmond.) 



b First, first and second, second and third, or second, third, and fourth from outside. 



