236 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



1 small lizard (Anolis sp.), 1 pigeon (Columba sp.), 2 mourning 

 doves (Zenaidura m. macroura), 1 mango hummingbird (Anthra- 

 cothorax dominions), 1 Hispaniolan tody (Todus subulatus), 1 

 narrow-billed tody (Todus angustirostris) , 1 Hispaniolan wood- 

 pecker (Ghryserpes striatus), 1 cliff swallow (Petrochelidon f. 

 fulva), 3 Hispaniolan thrushes (Mimoeichla a. ardosiacea), 5 Ja- 

 maican vireos (Vireo o. olivaceus), 1 redstart (Setophaga ruticilla), 



2 Hispaniolan spindalis (Spindalis multicolor), 13 Hispaniolan 

 palm tanagers (Phaenioophilus p. pahnarum). Bones of these spe- 

 cies were selected from a great quantity of remains of rats which 

 are not available for count. The presence of tree-frog remains is 

 notable. 



From the above data it appears that the barn owl is a definite 

 element in the control of rats and mice which are of economic im- 

 portance in their destructiveness to crops and other things pertain- 

 ing to man. It is true that the owl seems to capture many birds, 

 but it is believed that its aid in rodent control offsets any injury in 

 this direction and the owls should not be destroyed for that reason. 



The barn owls of Haiti show two distinct color phases one being 

 light with light buffy and grayish tints predominating and the other 

 very dark with the buff very deep and the color of the back much 

 darker. Very light and very dark birds offer considerable contrast 

 but in the series available the two phases merge imperceptibly 

 through individual specimens. 



The barn owl is one of the larger landbirds of the island being 350 

 mm. or more in length. It is easily told from other birds by the 

 broad disks or rings of gray feathers that surround either eye 

 which give the bird the strange appearance that in the United 

 States causes a closely related form to be known as the " monkey- 

 faced owl. " Above the barn owl is dusky brown mottled with light 

 or dark buff or grayish and below buff with the feathers barred 

 lightly with irregular marks of dusky. Feathering extends down the 

 tarsus but the feathers become sparse on the lower half continuing 

 as stiff, scattered, hairlike filaments to the last joints of the toes. 



TYTO OSTOLOGA Wetmore 



GIANT OWL 



Tyto ostologa Wetmoke, Smithsonian Misc. Colls., vol. 74, no. 4, October 

 17, 1922, p. 2, figs. 1 and 2 (from cave near St. Michel, Haiti).— Bond, Proc 

 Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 80, 1928, p. 521 (listed). 



Extinct ; known only from bones found in caves in Haiti. 



During a geological reconnaissance in Haiti in March, 1921 J. S. 

 Brown and W. S. Burbank secured the fragments of the metatarsus 

 from which the present species was described in a large cave known 



