1 62 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA — PART 2 



BUBO VIRGINIANUS MESEMBRINUS Oberholser: 

 Great Horned Owl; Buho Cornudo Grande 



Bubo virginianus mesembrinus Oberholser, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 27, January 

 22, 1904, pp. 178 (in key), 179. (San Jose, Costa Rica.) 



Largest of the horned owls, with a prominent white throat patch, 

 and barred under surface ; horns black and buff. 



Description. — Length 460-520 mm. Adult (sexes alike), above 

 sooty brown to dusky, with feathers basally barred and mottled 

 coarsely with grayish and cinnamon-buff to produce a variegated 

 pattern ; crown feathers with broad but irregular black streaks spotted 

 with grayish white ; horns solid black at ends and in centers, spotted 

 with grayish white distally and cinnamon-buff at base ; wing coverts 

 and scapulars heavily mottled with grayish white ; primaries and sec- 

 ondaries sooty brown, with broad light bars of buffy white mottled 

 with grayish brown ; rectrices centrally like scapulars ; outer feathers 

 barred like the primaries ; spinous feathers at base of bill and above 

 eye dull white tipped with dusky ; rest of face dull buff tipped with 

 buffy white, bordered behind by an indistinct rim of black ; chin and 

 lower edge of facial disk dull white; upper throat cinnamon-buff 

 lined heavily with sooty brown ; lower throat and f oreneck white ; rest 

 of lower surface, including the under tail coverts, barred narrowly 

 with sooty brown, more broadly with white, with the feathers cinna- 

 mon-buff basally ; tibia cinnamon-buff with a few narrow, dusky bars ; 

 feathered tarsi and toes buffy white, in some birds nearly plain, in 

 others with scattered narrow bars of sooty brown ; under wing coverts 

 mixed white and cinnamon-buff, barred and spotted with sooty brown. 



The downy young of great horned owls, so far as they are known, 

 are dull buff, barred narrowly and sparingly with sooty brown and 

 dull black. 



The iris in this species is bright lemon yellow ; bill dull slaty black ; 

 claws black at end, lighter at base. 



Measurements. — Males (6 from Oaxaca, Guatemala, Honduras, 

 and Veraguas) wing 329-339 (334.2), tail 186-195 (189.5), culmen 

 from cere 27.1-30.0 (28.2) mm. 



Females (5 from Oaxaca, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica), 

 wing 341-368 (351.4), tail 188-208 (194.4), culmen from cere 25.4- 

 30.0 (28.3) mm. 



Status uncertain, presumed to be resident. Recorded from Vera- 

 guas (Chitra), and Isla Rancheria (off Isla Coiba, sight record). 



The only specimen record is a male collected at Chitra, Veraguas, 

 by E. Arce in 1868, and sent to Salvin. I have examined this specimen, 



