BIRDS OP NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 727 



OTUS NUDIPES (Vieillot). 



BARE-LEGGED SCREECH OWL. 



Lower third or more of tarsus, as well as toes, completely naked; 

 size large (wing 177-190.5 mm.). 



Adults (sexes alike). — General color of upper parts brown (cinna- 

 mon-brown to almost tawny, the color lighter and inclining more to 

 tawny on pileum and hindneck), conspicuously vermiculatcd, mot- 

 tled, and spotted with black, the spots on pileum often fused and 

 forming irregular broad streaks; outer webs of outermost scapulars 

 white, mottled at tip with black and light brown, often edged along 

 inner margin with a black streak; distal middle and greater wing- 

 coverts with large subterminal irregular spots of white or pale buffy; 

 secondaries and proximal primaries with transverse series of light 

 cinnamon transverse spots, these, as well as the darker interspaces 

 mottled or irregularly vermiculated with dusky; distal primaries 

 with larger and mostly immaculate spots of paler cmnamomeous, the 

 dark interspaces also mostly immaculate; tail with transverse series 

 of narrow, irregular, mottled bands of cmnamon-browii, those some- 

 times scarcely if at all interrupted; ear- tufts similar in coloration to 

 pileum, but inner webs sometimes with light cinnamomeous predom- 

 inating; "eyebrow" usually tawny or cinnamon (more or less deep) — 

 rarely whitish — the feathers margined terminally with black and with 

 black shafts; lores cinnamon or tawny, with black shafts; suborbital 

 and auricular regions cinnamon to deep tawny or russet, rather 

 broadly barred with blackish, the bars becoming broader posteriorly; 

 no well-defined "facial rim" or border; malar region, chin, and throat 

 cinnamon, tawny, or russet, sometimes immaculate, but usually with 

 blackish shaft-streaks; rest of under parts mixed light brown to 

 tawny and buffy white (the latter predominating posteriorly, the 

 former prevailing anteriorly), the brown or ta^ny kregularly barred 

 with black (the feathers with black shaft-streaks also, these usually 

 largest, sometimes spot-like, on breast), the whitish mostly immacu- 

 late and in form of rounded or transverse spots; feathering of thighs 

 and upper half of tarsi varying from clear, nearly immaculate, taA\7iy 

 or tawny-ochraceous to light buffy brown heavily barred or trans- 

 versely clouded with darker brown; under tail-coverts white or buffy 

 white with an irregular subterminal bar of ta^vny or light brown, 

 usually edged with a black line; under wing-coverts dull buffy, 

 usually mostly immaculate but often more or less clouded or mottled 

 with brown, those toward edge of wing mottled or spotted with dark 

 brown; under surface of inner webs of primaries for the greater part 

 plain deep grayish brown, but the basal portion (especially on inner 

 primaries) with larger but not very strongly contrasted transvei-se 

 spots of pale dull buffy; bill light yellowish, darker on lateral basal 



