FAMILY STRIGIDAE 1 57 



177-182 (179.8), tail 90.2-106.4 (96.2, average of 8), culmen from 

 cere 11.3-16.7 (14.6), tarsus 33.0-37.8 (35.3) mm. 



Females (10 from Costa Rica and Panama), wing 176-184 (182.8), 

 tail 91.8-108.3 (98.4), culmen from cere 14.0-16.6 (14.6, average of 

 9), tarsus 32.5-37.0 (34.8) mm. 



Resident. Rare in the Subtropical Zone; recorded in Chiriqui 

 (Volcan Baru) ; Veraguas (Calobre) ; and Darien (Cerro Pirre, 

 Cerro Mali, Cerro Tacarcuna, La Laguna) . 



This interesting owl is recorded in literature mainly from specimens 

 collected in Costa Rica, where it is called estucuru, but with little 

 information concerning its habits, except that it is a bird of the higher 

 mountain forests. On Cerro Mali in the serranias of eastern Darien, 

 we caught one March 3, 1964, in a mist net set at 1,450 meters eleva- 

 tion in the forest above our camp. On this same day one of the 

 Panamanians with C. O. Handley, Jr., brought me another male 

 from 1,460 meters on the crest of the ridge of Cerro Tacarcuna. The 

 bird was taken exactly on the line of the boundary between Panama 

 and Colombia, so that it serves as a record for both Republics. Two 

 additional specimens collected on Cerro Mali, May 30, 1963, by Dr. 

 Pedro Galindo and his associates from the Gorgas Memorial Labora- 

 tory, include an adult bird with sex not marked, and a juvenile 

 female that is nearly grown. 



Regularly at night while in camp at this high elevation, I heard an 

 owl that I was certain was this species, since I was familiar with the 

 notes of the other members of this family found there. The call was 

 in two parts, a single note, a brief pause, then the same syllable 

 repeated rather quickly three times, coo, coo-coo-coo, the whole 

 rather high in sound, and quite musical. 



Stomachs of the specimens taken were empty. One shot May 5, 

 1912, by E. A. Goldman at 1,525 meters on Cerro Pirre, near the 

 head of Rio Limon, had eaten 3 large scarabaeid beetles and 2 

 orthopterons. 



I know of no record of the nest and eggs. 



In its early history this owl was known as Otus nudipes, a name 

 that applies properly to another species with the lower end of the 

 tarsus bare, found in the West Indies in Puerto Rico and certain of 

 the Virgin Islands. When Dr. and Mrs. Kelso brought this to atten- 

 tion and named the present bird Otus clarkii they referred to Sharpe's 

 account of it in volume 2 of the Catalogue of Birds in the British 

 Museum, pages 121-122, published in 1875. Here Sharpe stated that 

 his description was written "from a specimen obtained at Calobre, in 



