I48 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 2 



13. Back plain, except for a few partly concealed 6pots; sides plain brown 

 without markings. 



Least pygmy owl, Glaucidium minutissimum rarum, p. 167 

 Back and sides spotted, barred or streaked. 



Mountain pygmy owl, Glaucidium jardinii costaricanum, p. 169 



OTUS GUATEMALAE VERMICULATUS (Ridgway) : 

 Vermiculated Screech Owl; Buhito Jaspeado 



Figure 21 



Megascops vermiculatus Ridgway, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 10, August 1, 1887, 

 p. 267. (Costa Rica) 



A small eared owl, smaller than the Choliba screech owl, darker 

 colored, and more mottled, less definitely streaked. 



Description. — Length 205-225 mm. With gray and rufous color 

 phases. Gray phase, adult (sexes alike), above definitely brownish 

 gray, the feathers with crossbars of black that join along the midrib, 

 and lateral bars of buff, (producing a mottled appearance, without 

 the clearly outlined black streaks seen in Otus choliba) ; bend of 

 wing, and outer edge of some of the wing coverts, white; primaries 

 barred narrowly with black, and more broadly with cinnamon-buff, 

 mixed on the outer web with a few scattered partial bars of white, 

 with tips mottled with fine irregular spots of dull neutral gray ; sec- 

 ondaries similar, but with white reduced or absent ; tail also similar, 

 with a slight amount of white on the outer web of the outermost 

 feather ; facial disk with a black posterior border, otherwise grayish 

 white, barred narrowly with fuscous-black; chin dull white; breast, 

 sides, abdomen and under tail coverts white to buffy white, barred 

 narrowly with black, with fairly definite black shaft stripes, and 

 mottling of buffy brown and gray; feathered tarsi grayish white 

 barred narrowly and indefinitely with blackish brown; inner under 

 wing coverts extensively white, outer ones mottled like the sides of 

 the breast; under surface of wing feathers with barring reduced or 

 nearly absent (differing thus from the more definite barring of Otus 

 choliba luctisonus) . 



Rufous phase, strongly rufous-brown on the entire upper surface 

 with the prominent markings of the gray phase usually much reduced 

 or nearly absent ; crown, hindneck, and upper back lined very nar- 

 rowly and indistinctly with black (not heavily as in the Choliba 

 screech owl) ; lower surface somewhat less rufescent, usually browner 

 on the neck, breast, and sides, less so on the abdomen ; otherwise like 

 the gray phase. 



Color differs considerably so that individual birds may be interme- 

 diate in varying degree between the extremes of gray and brown. 



