204 BrBoxiD^. 



brown, witli a few rufous spots ; quills dark brown, barred across 

 with light rufous, those lighter bars terminating externally in a 

 fulvescent spot ; tail rufous brown, crossed with eight distinct bars 

 of light rufous, sometimes but not always completely traversing the 

 feather and here and there inclining to whitish ; lores whitish at 

 base, terminating in yellowish bristly hairs ; sides of face rufous 

 brown, narrowly streaked with butfy white ; chin and fore part of 

 cheeks whitish, separated from the fore neck, which is also white, by 

 a broad band of rnfous on which slight ochraceous mottlings appear; 

 rest of under surface white, blotched mth broad stripes of bright 

 rufous, the sides of the body almost uniformly of this colour, the 

 sides of the breast distinctly marked with oval spots of ochraceous 

 white ; under wing-coverts whitish, marked with brown near the 

 bend and edge of the wing, the greater series yellowish at base, brown 

 at tip, resembling the inner lining of the wing, which is broAvn barred 

 with yellowish white on the inner webs of the quills, these bars 

 inclining to pale rufous near the ends of the quills. Total length 

 O'o inches, wings 4-1, tail 2-55, tarsus 0-75. 



Another rufous specimen has a more uniform upper sui'face with 

 less distinct stripes on the head, which is obscurely spotted with 

 paler rufous ; the tail rufous, barred with dusky brown, eight bars 

 being perceptible on the centre feathers, but these irregular in shape 

 and more or less connected together l)y a longitudinal mark along 

 the shaft ; these bars more or less obliterated on the other feathers, 

 which exhibit the centre part for the most part dusky brown, from 

 which branch on either side irregular and ill-defined bars of the same 

 colour. 



Another specimen in the Museum represents what I believe to be 

 the young bird of the rufous phase. It is of a deeper and more 

 maroon-chestnut colour, and is nearly uniform everywhere on the 

 upper surface ; the crown is dusky rnfous brown, with only a few 

 narrow fulvous stripes on the forehead ; the tail uniform deep 

 rufous, with the faintest indications of obsolete bars near the tips 

 of some of the feathers. 



Ohs. The Trinidad form of G. ferox, which I keep separate from 

 the Central- American and Brazilian forms, holds an intermediate 

 position between the two latter, not being exactly similar to either 

 and partaking partially of the characters of both. The brown phase 

 is considerably darker than the corresponding plumage of either 

 G. ferox or G. ridgwayi, and is more of a chocolate-brown ; the spots 

 on the tail are six in number and smaller than in Brazilian birds. 

 The rufous plumage is also much darker and more chestnut than in 

 either of the two allied birds, and is separated by its distinctly spotted 

 back from the corresponding stage of G. ridgiunyi, though resembling 

 the latter in the characters of its tail when adult. Until, there- 

 fore, we know more of the species of Glaucidium from Venezuela 

 and Trinidad, it seems better to keep this as an intermediate and at 

 present geographically isolated form. 



Hab. Trinidad [? Venezuela and Guiana], 

 n, b, c. Ad. St. Trinidad. 



