12 NOHTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Wing, 11.70-12.00; tail, 4.80-5.20; tarsus, 2.40-2.75. Tail more even, 

 and lighter colored ; the dark bars narrower, and more sharply defined. 

 Colors generally jjaler, and more grayish. Ilab. South America (Brazil, 

 etc.) ............ var. perlata.^ 



Wing, 12.00-13.50; tail, 5.60 - 6.00 ; culmen, .85-.95 ; tarsus, 2.70 - 2.85; 

 middle toe, 1.45-1.00. Colors as invar. perZato, but secondaries and tail 

 nearly white, in abrupt contrast to the adjacent parts ; tail usually without 

 bars. Hab. West Indies (Cuba and Jamaica, Mus. S. I.) . . \ar. fur cat a .- 



Wing, 11.00; tail, 5.00; culmen, about .85; tarsus, 2.05-2.45; middle 



shafts. The tail has four rather distinct grayish bands. The facial circle is ochraceous, some- 

 what darker across the foreneck ; the face white, with the ante-orbital spot claret-brown. Entire 

 lower parts immaculate pure white. Wing-fornuila, 2, 1=3. Wing, 12.30 ; tail, 5.30 ; cul- 

 men, .70 ; tarsus, 2.75 ; middle toe, 1.45. 



No. 24,283, Nicaragua, (Captain J. M. Dow, ) is like the specimen just described, in the uniform 

 dark wash of the upper parts, but this is deeper ; the lower parts, however, are quite different, 

 being ochraceous-orauge, instead of pure white. 



Tiie remaining five specimens (from San Salvadoi-, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua) are alike, and 

 differ from northern birds in the deeper dark mottling of the upper parts ; the W'hite specks 

 very conspicuous, and usually sagittate. The facial circle deep black where it crosses the fore- 

 neck. Tlie lower parts vary in color from nearly pure white to deep orange-rufous ; the dark 

 markings of the lower surface are larger, more angular, and moi-e transverse than in true ^;ra- 

 tincola. The wing measures 11.30-13.00; tar.sus, 2.55-2.95. The northern form varies 

 from 12.50-13.00 (wing) and 2.50- 2.85 (tarsus). It is thus seen that while these .southern 

 birds average smaller in general dimensions, they have actually larger feet, the average length of 

 the tarsus being 2.80 in the Central American series, and only 2.60 in the northern series. This 

 exactly coincides with the case of SturncUa, the S. magna var. mexicana of the same region being 

 smaller bodied and shorter winged than var. magna of the United States, but with iiuich 

 larger feet, see p. 



1 Strix fiwnmiea, var. pcrlata. Strix per lata, Licht. Verz. Doubl. 59, 1823. — Tschudi, Av. 

 Consp. AViegm. Archiv. 267, 1844. — Hartt. Syst. Ind. Azara. p. 3. — Max. Beitr. Ill, 263 

 (excl. syn.). — Strickl. Orn. Syn. I, 1855, 180 (excl. syn.). Strix flamnwa, Darwin, Zool. 

 Beag. 34. — Schomb. Verz. Faun. Brit. Guian. p. 732. — Snx, Av. Bras. I, 21. 



This is a still further differentiated or more a^jpreciably modified race. It differs in smaller 

 size (wing, 11.70-12.50 ; tail, 4.80-5.20 ; tarsus, 2.40-2.75) and more square tail, while the 

 colors also present constant differences. The tail is much lighter compared with the wings, the 

 bands nan-ower and more shai-ply defined, though the same in number. 



^ Strix flammea, var. f areata. Strix furcata, Temm. PI. Col. 432, 1838. — D'Orb. Hist. Nat. 

 Cuba Ois. p. 34. Hah. West Indies (Cuba and Jamaica). 



This form is the most distinctly characterized of all the I'aces of S. flammea which we have 

 examined. It has the general plumage decidedly lighter and less rufous, while the secondaries 

 and tail are abruptly lighter than the adjacent parts, and usually free from bands, though there 

 are sometimes traces of them. 



All the American races of Strix flammea differ very decidedly from the European form (var. 

 flammea) in much larger size. The differences in color are not so appreciable, and there is 

 hardly any certain difference in this respect. The extreme phases, however, appear to be darker 

 in the var. flammea than in the var. 2>'ratincola. The supposed differences in the character 

 of the feathers fringing the operculum, insisted on by MacGillivray (History of British Birds, 

 III, 1840, p. 473), I am unable to appreciate, for I cannot find that they differ in the least in 

 the two races. That excellent ornithologist states that in the American " species " the feathers 

 of the operculum are reduced to a simple tube, having neither filaments nor shaft, while in the 

 European bird they are perfect feathei's, with all their parts complete. Though this may have 

 been the case with the one or more specimens of pratincola examined by Mr. MacGillivray, I 

 have yet to see an American specimen which has not the feathers of the operculum just as pei-- 

 fectly developed as in European examples. 



