FAMILY STRIGIDAE 1 79 



bright yellow ; base of claws honey yellow, shading to dull neutral 

 gray at the tip. 



A female collected February 23, 1960, at Palo Santo, near El Vol- 

 can, Chiriqui, had the iris light yellowish brown. 



Measurements. — Males (6 from Panama and Colombia), wing 254- 

 268 (261.6), tail 144-165 (152.3), culmen from cere 19.0-21.1 (20.0, 

 average of 5) mm. 



Females (9 from Mexico, Honduras, Panama, and Colombia), wing 

 270-279 (275.2), tail 160-178 (170.2), culmen from cere 19.5-22.8 

 (21.6) mm. 



Resident. Rare in forests of the Tropical and lower Subtropical 

 Zone. Recorded from Chiriqui (Divala, El Volcan, Quiel) ; Vera- 

 guas (Chitra, El Villano) ; Bocas del Toro (Cayo Agua) ; Canal Zone 

 (Gatun, Tiger Hill, Barro Colorado Island), and eastern Province of 

 Panama (La Jagua). 



This is an owl of wide distribution from southern Mexico through 

 Central America and northwestern South America, but one that is 

 little known aside from the specimens in museums. 



In the Canal Zone Hallinan secured 2 in 1909, 1 near Gatun 

 February 11, and another at Tiger Hill February 20. He reported 

 that the bird gave a catlike call. In 1952, on Barro Colorado Island, 

 Lloyd Ingles heard a curious sound, a loud whee-u-u-u that first he 

 supposed came from an ocelot or some other nocturnal mammal, but 

 that he traced to an owl. His photograph of it showed unmistakably 

 the present species. He and Mrs. Ingles heard them calling subse- 

 quently, and once saw one alight in the grass in front of one of the 

 buildings, apparently to catch some small prey. On March 2 and 3, 

 1956, I saw one at dawn in a papaya tree below the laboratory. Here, 

 on the second occasion, the owl remained until there was sufficient 

 light for me to see the barred markings clearly. The bird rested 

 unafraid while two of the island workers walked up the steps near it, 

 and only flew off into the woods at full light. On the following night, 

 and again on April 2, 1957, repeatedly I heard the drawn-out call 

 described by Dr. Ingles. The sound suggested a barn owl, but was 

 shorter and less harsh in tone. Mrs. Harriet Burkhart has given me 

 an interesting observation made in February 1957, in which one of 

 these owls rested on a porch railing, and in an orange tree. The bird 

 was hunting small black bats, Myotis nigricans, that hung on high 

 screens about the houses. 



At La Jagua on the evening of January 12, 1962, Baldomiro and I 

 heard an owl call from the trees fringing the marsh, an abrupt explo- 



