760 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



sixth and seventh, sixth, seventh, and eighth, or fifth, sixth, and 

 seventh °' primaries longest, the tenth (apparent outermost) a little 

 shorter than second;^ five outer primaries with inner webs sinuated 

 (the sinuation sometimes very indistinct on fifth). Tail much more 

 than half as long as wing, slightly rounded. Tarsus longer than 

 middle toe with claw, densely clothed with rather short feathers; toes 

 naked, except basal portion of middle one. 



Coloration. — I. Sooty brown or dusky above, vermiculated with 

 dull buffy or buffy grayish, or transversely spotted with tawny; 

 beneath buffy or tawny, striped or spotted with dusky (sometimes 

 vermiculated anteriorly). II. Plain sooty black above, with white 

 bars on hindneck and taU; beneath white broadly barred with black. 



Range. — Continental tropical America. (About ten species.) 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF CICCABA. 



a. Under parts regularly barred with black and white; upper parts plain sooty black, 



interrupted by a nuchal collar of barred black and white. ( Ciccaba nigrolineata.) 



b. Black bars on under parts narrower; upper parts without white bars, except on 



hindneck, and, sometimes, on wing-coverts and upper tail-coverts. (Southern 



Mexico to western Ecuador.) Ciccaba nigrolineata nigrolineata (p. 763). 



bb. Black bars on under parts broader; upper parts with white bars on back, scap- 

 ulars, etc. (Central Colombia.) 



Ciccaba nigrolineata spilonota (extralimital).c 



aa. Under parts buffy white to buffy cinnamon, striped with brownish black or dark 



brown; upper parts grayish brown to dark sooty brown, more or less mottled, 



barred, or spotted with paler. {Ciccaba virgata.) 



h. Darker, the ground color of under parts more or less strongly buffy to buffy 



cinnamon, the sides of breast (sometimes whole breast) mottled or barred with 



dusky and buffy brownish or dull buffy. (Southeastern Mexico to Venezuela 



and western Colombia.) Ciccaba virgata virgata (p. 763). 



bb. Paler, the ground color of under parts dull white or buffy white, with little if 

 any darker mottling on sides of breast. 

 c. Upper parts spotted with white or whitish. (Western Mexico.) 



Ciccaba virgata squamulata (p. 766), 



CO. Upper parts barred with pale buffy brown or brownish buff. (Northeastern 



Mexico.) Ciccaba virgata tamaulipensis (p. 767). 



CICCABA NIGROLINEATA NIGROLINEATA Sclater. 



BLACK-AND-WHITE OWL. 



Adults (sexes alike). — ^Pileum and nape uniform black or sooty black; 

 hindneck broadly barred with black and white, the black bars rather 

 broader than the white ones, both very sharply defined; rest of upper 

 parts dark sooty brown to sooty black,*^ the upper tail-coverts usually 



o Fourth and fifth, third, fourth, and fifth, or fourth, fifth, and sixth from outside. 



& Ninth from outside. 



c [Syrnium nigrolineatum.'] Subsp. a. Syrnium spilonotum Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. 

 Mus., ii, 1875, 277 (Bogota, Colombia; coll. Brit. Mus.; ex [Syrnium'] spilonotum 

 Gray, Hand-list, i, 1869, 49, =nomen nudum). 



<* The color darker (more nearly black) in fresh plumage, more sooty in older plumage. 



