16 Mr. R. Ridgway on the Genus Glaucitliura. 



synonyms. Mr. Sharpe is certainly at fault in his identifi- 

 cation of the Strix ferox of Vieillot, the description of which 

 distinctly states that the crown is spotted with white"^, whereas 

 in every plumage of the present bird it is narrowly streaked. 

 The tail is also stated to be spotted with white. This form is 

 perhaps to be referred to G. pumilum ; but this is uncertain. 



Although seventy specimens have been examined f by me 

 (nearly twice the number inspected by Mr. Sharpe) ^ I cannot 

 recognize the local differences upon which jNIr. Sharpe bases 

 his G. phalcenoides and G. ridgwayi, and consider them un- 

 tenable even as climatic or geographical races, and conse- 

 quently include these names among the synonyms of a species 

 far more variable individually than climatically. 



5. Glaucidium pumilum. 



Glaucidmm pumilum, Ridgw. /. c. p. 97 ; Sharpe, /. c. pp. 

 40, 56. 



Glaucidium griseiceps, Sharpe, /. c. pp. 41, 56. 



Hub. Eastern South America, north to Guatemala. 



Mr. Sharpe remarks that he considers this species to be 

 " confined to Brazil, and not to range, as Mr. Ridgway sup- 

 poses, into Central America Consequently the two spe- 

 cimens from Guatemala in Mr. Ridgway^s paper are G. gri- 

 seiceps and not G. pumilum ^^ (pp. 40, 41). This statement 

 prompted a re-examination of my Guatemalan specimen, which 

 proves to be an extreme example of G. pumilum, as distin- 

 guished from " G. griseiceps ,'' and corresponds exactly with the 

 figure on plate ii. fig. 1, except that it has even more chestnut 

 lower parts and back. This specimen was procured by exchange 

 from the Boston Society of Natural History, in whose col- 

 lection were several similar ones, obtained in Guatemala by 

 Van Patten. The immature example in Mr. Lawrence's col- 

 lection, mentioned on page 98 of my monograph, is exactly 



* " Capite nigricante fusco, alhklo maculato ; superciliis albis ; corpora 

 supra obscure fusco; rectricihns alho maculatis ; gulu, jugulo pectoreque 

 fuscia; ventre albo ; rostro virescente." — Enc. Meth. 1289. 



t Of these but one South-American specimen has the tail white- 

 banded ; this ia the type of the " G. iyifuscatum, var. infuscatum," of my 

 monograph. 



