774 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



aa. Darker, with black predominating on pileum and white of scapulars much broken 

 by black or blackish brown; barring on under parts more dense. (Northern 

 North America.) Surnia ulula caparoch (p. 774). 



SURNIA ULULA CAPAROCH (Mtiller). 



AMERICAN HAWK OWL. 



Similar to S. u. ulula'^ but coloration much darker, the black and 

 brown areas and markings not only darker in color but more extended, 

 the whitish ones correspondingly reduced in extent; pileum with 

 black predominating, and scapulars with the white areas much 

 broken by bands of blackish brown, and barring on under parts 

 denser. 



Adults (sexes alike). — Above rich dark brown (nearly bone brown) 

 darker anteriorly, where passing into black or brownish black on 

 hindneck and pileum, lighter and more grajdsh brown posteriorly; 

 each feather of pileum with a central small spot of white, those on fore- 

 head more circular, those on occiput more linear, as well as less numer- 

 ous, the hindneck with larger V-shaped or cuneate spots, streaks or 

 bars of white ; a narrow streak of brownish black from above middle 

 of eye backward along upper edge of auricular region, where it bends 

 abruptly downward across terminal portion of the latter; confluent 

 with this at about the middle of its vertical portion is another but 

 broader blackish stripe which passes down side of hindneck, and 

 another passes from occiput down median line of hindneck; between 



Footnote — Continued, 

 crit.). — Strix accipitrina (not of Pallas) Bechstein, Vog. Deutschl., ii, 1791, 372, pi. 12. — 

 Surnia borealis Lesson, Traits d'Om., 1831, 100, part. 



The inclusion of this form in the North American fauna on the ground of its alleged 

 accidental occurrence in Alaska is, I now believe, a mistake. The specimen on which 

 the record was originally based is now before me; and, while it shows as conspicuous 

 white spotting on the pileum as the European and Siberian form, in other charactere 

 it seems not to differ from the American bird, and I think it had better be considered 

 an abnormal example of the latter. 



As to the claims of the bird from northeastern Asia to subspecific rank, I am not 

 able, with the very small series available, to see that it differs from the European bird. 



[Since the above remarks were put in type Dr. Hartert's treatment of the Palse- 

 arctic forms of this species has been seen by me. In "Die Vogel der palaarktischen 

 Fauna" (Heft viii, Bd. ii, 2, August, 1913, pp. 1010-1013) Dr. Hartert recognizes 

 three subspecies for the Palaearctic Region, as follows: 



(1) Surnia ulula ulula (Linnaeus), p. 1010; Northern Scandinavia to western 

 Siberia. 



(2) Surnia ulula tianschanica Smallbones (Orn. Monatsb., 1906, 27; Surnia ulula 

 korejewi Sarudny and Loudon, Orn. Monatsb., 1907, 2); Tian Schan. 



(3) Surnia ulula pallasi Buturlin (Orn. Monatsb., 1907, 100): Eastern Siberia; 

 Kamchatka; Ussm-iland. 



It is not unlikely that the Alaskan specimen (from St. Michaels) above referred to 

 may belong to the Eastern Siberian form; indeed, Hartert thus places it.] 

 a See p. 773. 



