230 BriiuNii),fi. 



Asio peregriuator, ■^fricJd. Orn. 8yn. p. '207. 

 Otus vulgaris americanus, Schl. J/w-s-. P.-B. Oli, p. 2. 

 Otus vul^'-aris, var. americanus, Ridyw. in Coiws, Key N.-Aincr. B. 

 p. -IdU id. X. Amer. B. iii. p. 18 ; Coues, B. N. W. p. 304. 



Adult. Above dusky blackish, with only a slight shade of orange- 

 buff, -where the bases show through ; all the feathers of the upper 

 surface freckled with white on either web, causing a very distinctly 

 Avaved appearance, very plainly exhibited on the scapulars ; crown 

 of the head and neck dark, like the rest of the upper surface, the 

 white cross markings rather darker than on the back ; wing-coverts 

 also uniform with the back, the white wavy markings obscure, the 

 greater coverts with tolerably large oval spots of white on the outer 

 web ; quills ashy brown, as also the primary-coverts, barred with 

 darker brown, the interspaces also mottled with the same, the secou- 

 daries with wavy lines of white, resembling the dorsal plumes, the 

 primaries more broadly banded than the secondaries and inclining to 

 orange near the base of the outer web ; tail-feathers ashy brown, 

 tipped with greyish white and crossed with nine bars of darker 

 brown, the bars narrowing in extent towards the tips of the feathers, 

 where they become more or less merged in the mottlings which 

 cover the interspaces, the bases of all the feathers more or less in- 

 clining to orange-buff; forehead dark brown, mottled with smaU 

 greyish white bars ; ear-tufts dark brown, inclining to orange-buff 

 ou the outer web ; the inner web fulvous, -n-ith white notches, as on 

 the rest of the upper surface ; lores and feathers over the eye white, 

 with black hair-like centres; face deep orange-buff; the feathers 

 round the eye black, the facial disk black, the bases to the feathers 

 white, the ruff succeeded by a second line of small gi'eyish feathers 

 mottled with black cross lines behind the ear-coverts ; chin whitish ; 

 throat-feathers loug and stiff, dark brown, mottled with white on 

 cither web, in continuation of the facial ruff; rest of under surface 

 shghtly washed with orange-bufi, most of the feathers being white 

 with a broad longitudinal centre of dark brown, from which radiate 

 on each web some broad and distinct bars of the same colour ; leg- 

 feathers orange-buff, as also the under tail-coverts, which incline to 

 white near the tips and are barred with brown ; under wing-coverts 

 orange-buff, spotted with brown, and streaked with the same near 

 the outer margin, which is white, the greater series yellowish at base, 

 dark brown at tip, thus resembling the inner Uning of the wing, 

 which is ashy browu, barred with darker brown and inclining to 

 orange-buff near the base ; soft parts as in A. otus. Total length 

 14-5 inches, wing 12, tail 6--5, tarsus 1-65. 



Hah. !Xorth America, as far south as Mexico. 



