14 Mr. R. Ridgway on the Genus Glaucidium. 



hesitatingly, agreed that the grey form of G. ferrugineum 

 was meant*. 



Mr. Sharpe includes this species among those which " do 

 not, so far as he can learn, ever have a rufous phase." Al- 

 though this is true, if comparison is made with the extremely 

 rufous phase of G. ferrugineum and G.jardinii, there is never- 

 theless a distinctly marked rusty extreme, very different from 

 the ordinary greyish brown, and still more so from the op- 

 posite plumbeous extreme, Mr. Sharpe's plate, above cited, 

 does not quite represent either phase in its extreme, as re- 

 presented in the series before me. These differences of plu- 

 mage I consider to be neither sexual, seasonal, nor progres- 

 sive, and to represent just the same variation that we see in 

 the other species above mentioned, as well as certain species 

 of Scops and Syrnium alucof, only in a less exaggerated 

 degree. 



A young specimen from Arizona differs from the adult 

 (grey phase) only in lacking the spots on the pileum, which 

 is uniform brownish grey. 



2. Glaucidium jardinii. Plate I. 



Glaucidium jardinii, Ridgw. /. c. p. 99 ; Sharpe, I. c. pp. 

 43, 57. 



? Glaucidium lansbergii, Ridg. /. c. p. 98. 



Hab. Northern South America : Bogota {Nat. Mus.) ; 

 Ecuador? {Cab. G. N. Lawrence, rufescent); Caracas {Mus. 

 Philad. Acad., rufescent) ; Guiana {Cab. G. N. Lawrence, 

 brown) . 



While admitting the probability that G. lansbergi repre- 

 sents the rufous plumage of the same species as G. jardinii, 

 I am by no means certain that such is the case. The large, 

 round, and generally distributed spots on the pileum, and the 

 conspicuous transverse markings of the upper parts, certainly 

 suggest their close relationship ; but the wide differences in 



* The following is to be added to the synonyms of this form : — 

 " Strix data, Natterer, Mus. Vindob." apudJiona^. Consp. i. p. 36, 1850. 

 Glaucidium elata, Bonap. I. c. p. 36 (" Si7)u'/is S. passerinae, sed cauda 

 longiori.'''' From Mexico.) 



t Also certain species of the Falconine geuiis Micrastur. 



