STRIGIDiE. — BRACHYOTUS CASSINII. 69 



south as the Straits of Magellan.' Lieutenant Gilliss brought home quite a num- 

 ber from Chile," and Mr. Gould has received specimens from Brazil.' Two of these 

 birds are also said to have been brought from the Sandwich Islands.' I cannot, 

 however, find that this variety has ever been found to have a more northern range 

 than the central regions of South America. 



The North American bird is larger, and for the most part of a darker color, than 

 the European Owl. This is especially true of the female. As the differences be- 

 tween these varieties are constant, and are as well marked as in many other in- 

 stances where the birds are now acknowledged to be distinct species, there is no 

 good reason why they should be regarded as identical. If we assume Mr. Gould's 

 genus of Brachyotus to be a good one, it leaves our own immediate species with no 

 specific name, and I have been able to find none more appropriate or deserved than 

 one giving to it an association with the name of the naturalist who first pointed out 

 the specific differences between these species. I have therefore named it in honor of 

 my esteemed friend, Mr. Cassm, of Philadelphia, a gentleman who stands confessed- 

 ly in the first rank of American ornithologists, and Avho, in patient and diligent 

 research, and in skilful and discriminating investigations into the intricate problems 

 of Natural History, has no superior among her votaries. 



The South American variety (^Brachyotus galapagoensis, Gould) more closely re- 

 sembles the B. cassinii, and is not readily distinguished from it. It is, however, 

 without any doubt, a quite distinct species, though the points of specific difference 

 cannot at present be very clearly pointed out. The most noticeable is the constantly 

 deeper shade of fulvous in the South American bird. Another circumstance which, 

 as it seems to me, should have no small weight in determining the question, is, that 

 so long an interval of territory exists between the several habitats of these species, in 

 which neither occurs. Latitude 40° north on the Atlantic coast, and about 38° on 

 the Pacific, is believed to be the southern limit of the range of the Northern species, 

 and somewhere about 20° south the northern line of the South American variety. 



Having thus assumed the Short-eared Owl of North America to be a distinct spe- 

 cies from either the European or the South American variety, I must claim for it 

 much more restricted limits than have generally been assigned, yet still a range quite 

 as extended as that of any of this family. Sir John Richardson met with it as far 

 to the north as latitude 67°. Professor Holboll gave it as a bird of Greenland. 

 Dr. Cooper has obtained specimens in Oregon, and Dr. Heermann speaks of it as 

 common in California, though Dr. Gambel, a very diligent and observing naturalist, 

 met with no specimens there.^ In the United States, there are no well-authenticated 

 instances of its having been noticed south of Pennsylvania, though both Dr. Gund- 

 lach and Mr. Lembeye mention this Owl as an occasional \isitant of Cuba. Dr. 



1 Yarrell's British Birds, I, 125. 



^ The U. S. Naval Astronomical E.xpedition to the Southern Hemisphere, II, 177. 



3 Since the above was written, and while these pages are passing through the press, an undoubted 

 specimen of the Brachyotus cassinii has been received from California. It was obtained in February 

 (1856), near Petaluma, by Mr. Emanuel Samuels, and accompanied the collection made by him of the 

 natural history of that region for the Smithsonian Institution and the Boston Society of Natural History. 



