504 



SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — RAPTOEES — STBIGES. 



yielding to the great gray owl in stature, and to none in spirit, is a common inhabitant of 

 North Am. at large, representing B. ignavus of Europe. It is non-migratory ; breeds in late 

 winter, and early spring months (usually February or March), laying in hollows of trees or rifts 

 of rocks, or in a bulky nest of sticks on the branches of tall trees, often appropriating that of 

 a large hawk, as a Buteo. Eggs said to be 3-6, not known to me to be more than 2 in num- 

 ber; colorless, subspherical, about 2.25 X 1-90 in size; duration of incubation said to be about 

 three weeks. The young begin to hoot when about 4 months old. This owl preys upon 

 birds and quadrupeds up to the size of domestic fowls and rabbits. It is habitually abroad in 

 the daytime, apparently not at all inconvenienced by sunlight. Runs into the following vari- 

 eties, which, however, are not as strictly geographical as the names would indicate : — 



463. B. V. arc'ticus. (Lat. arcticus, northeni.) White Horned Ovpl. Very pale colored, fre- 

 quently quite whitish, and not distantly resembling the snowy owl. (See Swainson's fig. in 

 F. B. A., pi. 30.) Boreal and alpine North Am. ; such specimens occasional in Northern 

 U. S. in winter, and Rocky Mt. region. 



464. B. V. paci'flcus. (Lat. pacificus, of the Pacific ocean.) Dusky Horned Owl. "Very dark 

 colored, chiefly blackish and grayish, with little or no tawny. Apparently a littoral phase, sup- 

 posed to be more particularly de- 

 veloped on the Pacific coast ; but 

 the extreme of this style, in which 

 the tawny is extinct, and which 

 has been called B. saturatus, is 

 fi-om Labrador, where also occur 

 the darkest specimens of Gyr- 

 falcons. 



i 62 . SCOPS. (Gr. o-Kwv//-, Lat. scops, a 

 kind of owl. Fig. 354.) Little 

 Horned Owls. Screech Owls. 

 Like a miniature Bubo in form 

 (all our species under a foot long). 

 Skull and ear-parts symmetrical ; 

 latter small, simply elliptical, witli 

 rudimentary operculum ; facial 

 disc moderately developed; plumi- 

 coms evident ; nostrils at edge of 

 the cere, which is not inflated, 

 and shorter than the rest of the 

 culmen. Wings rounded, but 

 long, about twice the length of 

 the short rounded tail, about to 

 the end of which they fold; in Fig. 354.- Screech 0«1, reduced. (From Ball.) 



our species the 4th and 5th primaries longest, the 1st quite short; 3 or 4 outer primaries 

 sinuate or emarginate on inner webs. Tarsus feathered (in our species), but toes only partly 

 bristly (in the S. asio group) or quite naked (as in S. flammeola). Plumage dichromatic 

 in some cases ; i. e., some individuals of the same species normally mottled gray, while others 

 are reddish, the two phases very distinct when fully developed, but shading insensibly into 

 each other, and entirely independent of age, season, or sex. In normal plumage, a white or 

 whitish scapular stripe ; lower parts with lengthwise blotches or shaft-lines and crosswise 

 bars or waves of blackish or dark color ; upper parts with black or blackish shaft-lines on a 

 finely-dappled brown or gray ground (more or less obliterated in the red phase) ; facial disc 

 black-bordered nearly all around ; wing-quills spotted or marbled on outer webs, barred on 



