OWLS. 341 



locate a nest, wliat lie supposed to he an old nest, as it was lieajicd liiph with snow. 

 While looking at it doiibtt'uUy, however, his companion struck tlie butt of the tree a 

 heavy blow with a chib, and to his surprise the snowy covering of the nest was lifted 

 on the wings of the sitting bird, and scattered in a cloud as she hastily sped away." 



The American horned-owl has a very extensive range, as it is found from the shores 

 of the Arctic sea to Cape Horn, and although it presents considerable variations in 

 size and color, very few forms seem to be constant enough for recognition as races. 

 Specimens have been taken in which the color is so dark as to strongly suggest melan- 

 ism, while the other extreme is seen in specimens from the far north or the Alpine 

 levels of the mountains, which occasionally resemble quite closely, except for the 

 jilumicorns, the snowy-owl. 



The dusky horned-owl of India, £ubo coromandus, is interesting from the fact that 

 several instances are on record of its laying distinctly spotted eggs, though ordinarily 

 its eggs, like those of all other owls, are pure, unspotted white. 



Miniatures of the great horned-owls are the little horned-owls, or Scops owls as they 

 are frecpiently called, from the genus Scops to which they all belong. They agree 

 with the members of the geiuis liubo in most of the characters of that genus except 

 size ; the facial disk being imperfect in the same way and to about the same extent, 

 the iiluniicorns ))romineiit, and the colors similar. The wings are said to be projjor- 

 tionally longer, but this is not very obvious in the best figures wc have seen, and even 

 the measurements do not always bear out the statement. The toes, however, are 

 more often bare in Scops than in Jiiibo, and this nakedness frequently extends some 

 distance up the tarsus, in one or two species even half its length. Moreover, the 

 Scops owls frequently show marked dichromatism, which the species of Subo never 

 do, and all the former are of small size, the largest not exceeding a foot in length, and 

 the average being only from six to seven inches. 



Mr. R. B. Sharpe, in his catalogue of the birds of prey in the British Museum, thus 

 spe.aks of this group. " Difficult to understand as all owls are, the species of the 

 genus Scops are in every way the most difficult to identify. The imi)ossibility of 

 procuring series of some of the species to study at the same time, the absence of infor- 

 mation as to the sequence of plumages from the young stage to that of the .adult, and 

 the puzzling way in which some species seem to possess rufous phases, while others do 

 not, — these are all ])rol)Ieins which time alone can solve. I cm hardly expect that 

 all ornithologists will acquiesce in my views as to the sub-species or races which I have 

 believed it to be my duty to recognize. These races do exist in nature, and they may 

 be called by whatever name naturalists jtlease, 'varieties,' ' races,' ' sub-species,' 'cli- 

 matic forms,' etc.; but it has seemed to me better to keep these forms, many of which 

 are very well characterized, distinct from one another, than to merge them all as one 

 species, and thus to obliterate all records of nalnnd facts, which are plain enough to 

 tlie practiced eye of the ornithologist, though difficult to describe in words." 



Jfr. Sharpe then proceeds to characterize upwards of twenty-five sjiecies, and more 

 than tlie .same number of sulvspecies or races; about one quarter of the whole lacing 

 found in America, and the rest in the Old World, excluding Australia and Oceanica, 

 where none are known to occur. It is, of course, impossible for us to name these here, 

 or to go into questions of the validity of s])ecics, the relationships of races, etc. ilr. 

 Shar|)e, however, includes in the genus two owls which are perhaps better separated 

 under the generic title Lop/ios/n'.r, and which in size stand between Jiiiho and Srops, 

 but rather nearer the former, having a length of from sixteen to twenty inches, and 



