BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 687 



cc. Bristly tips to feathers of face greatly developed; middle toe (measured from 

 angle between middle and outer toes) not more than 14 mm. 



Otus trichopsis (\>. 705). 

 hh. Toes without bristles (entirely naked). 

 c. Tarsus densely feathered to base of toes; tail more than half as long as wing. 

 d. Smaller (wing averaging 142 in male, 151 in female); under parts broadly 

 streaked with black and broadly barred with blackish and rusty. 



Otus cassini (p. 721). 



dd. Larger (wing averaging 158.7 or more in males, more than 170 in females); 



under parts narrowly (if at all) streaked with black, and narrowly barred 



or vermiculated with blackish or rusty. 



e. Face whitish, rusty only on orbital region ; bars on under parts more regular, 



mostly blackish Otus choliba (p. 712). 



ee. Face wholly deep rusty or cinnamon-rufous (only the eyebrows sometimes 

 whitish); bars on under parts irregular, more dense, mostly rusty. 



Otus guatemalae (p. 717). 

 cc. Tarsus with lower portion naked; tailless than half as long as wing. (In 

 coloration like 0. guatemalse but color darker and more uniform, with eye- 

 brows never (?) whitish.) Otus vermiculatus (p. 725). 



OTUS ASIO ASIO (Linnaeus). 



FLORIDA SCREECH OWL. 



Gray phase. 



Adults {sexes alike). — Above brownish gray to grayish brown 

 (mouse-gray to nearly cinnamon-drab) finely mottled and vermicu- 

 lated with black or dusky, each feather with an irregular mesial 

 streak, or chain of small spots connected along shaft, of the same; 

 inner webs of ear-tufts coarsely mottled with grayish white, brownish 

 white, or pale buffy; outer webs of exterior scapulars mostly dull 

 white to light buff, tipped and narrowly margined with blackish; 

 across occiput or upper nape a more or less distinct indication of a 

 lighter colored band, in the form of irregular grayish w^hite or buffy 

 spots, and across lower hindneck often another of buffy (mostly 

 concealed) spots; secondaries crossed by several narrow bands of 

 paler buffy grayish or pale dull buffy, each enclosing an irregular 

 dusky bar or transverse spot of dusky, the general color, however, 

 so broken by mottlings that the bands are sometimes indistinct; 

 outer webs of outermost middle and greater coverts with a large 

 terminal or subterminal spot of white or pale buffy; outer webs of 

 inner (proximal) primaries with quadrate spots of lighter cinnamon- 

 drab, these becoming larger and paler toward the outermost, being 

 largest and palest (more whitish) on the three or four longest prima- 

 ries; tail crossed by seven or eight irregular, more or less broken, 

 narrow bands of lighter grayish brown or cinnamon-drab; face dull 

 giayish white, with an area of deep, more or less mottled or vermic- 

 ulated, brown immediately above eye; "eyebrow" (superciliary 

 region), auricular region, and suborbital region narrowly barred with 



