l8o BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 2 



sive bu, repeated at short intervals, occasionally with a faint sugges- 

 tion of a brief second syllable. As this differed only slightly in tone 

 from the call of the mottled owl, I was surprised when we traced it 

 down to find that the author was the present species. This bird thus 

 utters two quite different sounds. 



It has a deep red eye shine in the light of an electric torch, a color 

 that is definite with the bird near at hand but one that is not seen far. 



The stomach of 1 shot at Palo Santo, Chiriqui, February 23, 1960, 

 held parts of a mouse and fragments of large insects. The 1 taken at 

 La Jagua contained the rear portion of a small, long-tailed mouse, and 

 the remains of a small bat. Tashian (Auk, 1952, p. 62) found parts of 

 large insects and a bat in stomachs of 2 collected near Palenque, 

 Chiapas. 



Some individuals of the black-and-white owl from Colombia have 

 the back marked with prominent white bars in varying amount, a 

 peculiarity that was recognized by Sharpe (Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., 

 vol. 2, 1875, p. 277) as a distinct race that he called Syrnium spilono- 

 tum, as he placed nigrolineata in the genus Syrnium. The character 

 is highly variable in extent, so much so that usually it is considered an 

 individual variation. Possibly the marking is due to casual persistence 

 of the juvenile pattern. Blake (Fieldiana: Zool., vol. 36, 1958, p. 514) 

 has used this variation to unite Ciccaba nigrolineata and Ciccaba 

 huhula, found from southeastern Colombia and southern Venezuela 

 south into Brazil, as geographic races of one species. There is no 

 question as to close relationship, but the southern group {huhula) is 

 so black, with this color predominating in the pattern, with the white 

 reduced to very narrow lines above, and the white bars below narrower 

 than the black ones, that it appears to me preferable to regard the two 

 as a superspecies that embraces two distinct entities, each with a 

 specific name. 



RHINOPTYNX CLAMATOR FORBESI Lowery and Dalquest: 

 Striped Owl; Buho Listado 



Figure 29 



Rhinoptynx clamator forbesi G. H. Lowery, Jr., and W. W. Dalquest, Univ. 

 Kans. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 3, no. 4, October 10, 1951, p. 576. (Presidio, 

 Veracruz, Mexico.) 



A horned owl of medium size; buff to buffy white, heavily striped 

 with black. 



Description. — Length 340-365 mm. Adult (sexes alike), above 

 light buff to cinnamon-buff, heavily streaked with brownish black, with 



