FAMILY STRIGIDAE 



159 



or barring with blackish brown ; under surface of wings brownish 

 gray, barred with buff, under wing coverts pale cinnamon-buff ; under 

 surface of tail dull brownish gray, barred narrowly with white, and 

 mottled indistinctly with dusky. 



Light phase : paler, more buffy brown above and below, with light 

 markings usually more prominent. 



Figure 24. — Crested owl, buho penachudo, Lophostrix cristata. 



Juvenile, not seen. 



Little is known of these interesting owls, except that they are forest 

 inhabitants, found usually in hill country. My only definite observa- 

 tion is of one encountered near Zapotillo in western Veraguas, in a 

 small tract of trees on a slope above the Rio Bubi. Here it rested in 

 rather dense undergrowth 2 meters from the ground. I believed that 

 owls flushed in trees along quebradas, and seen indistinctly, near 

 Pucro, Darien, were this species, but was not certain. Strange, distant 



