AVES STRIGID^. 689 



Geographical Range. — Southern South America, from southern Brazil 

 and southern Peru, southward to the Straits of Magellan ; all Patagonia, 

 and Tierra del Fuego. 



The Magellanic Horned Owl was found by the Princeton naturalists 

 at all points where they explored Patagonia and birds from the sea coast, 

 as well as examples from the Cordillera, were brought back in the collect- 

 ions. This fine series, as well as the birds in the British Museum and 

 those in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, form the basis for the 

 descriptions here given. 



There is very considerable variation presented by birds from the several 

 localities where they were obtained, which, independent of age, the season 

 of the year or sex, show two well defined extremes, which seem to correlate 

 fairly well with the habitat of the two forms. Birds from the Straits of 

 Magellan, from Tierra del Fuego and from the southeastern coast of 

 Patagonia are notably greyer and decidedly more silvery than are those 

 from northern Patagonia, the Rio Negro region, or from the Cordillera of 

 Patagonia ; from both these latter regions the birds are much more shaded 

 with buff, especially on the upper surface, while some individuals taken 

 at Arroyo Eke in the interior and at Rio Gallegos near the coast, are 

 wholly deficient in the prominent buff tint that characterizes the other birds. 



In the P. Z. S. 1881, p. 10, Dr. Bowdler Sharpe describes some speci- 

 mens of this owl as follows : 



"Male: Cape Gregory, Straits of Magellan, January 1879. Irides 

 golden yellow ; horns prominent ; claws black. 



"Female: Port Henry, Straits of Magellan, January 28, 1879. 



"Male: Mayne Harbour, Straits of Magellan, January 1879. 



"The female is a much darker bird than the male, suggesting almost 

 the possibility of its being in melanistic plumage ; the general aspect of 

 the upper surface is almost uniform ; and the centre tail-feathers have no 

 cross bars at all. In the male the light cross bands are seven in number, 

 without counting the whitish apical band." 



E. W. White (P. Z. S. 1883, p. 433) says : " This bird was brought to me 

 alive, and I managed to keep it for some time : in fact they soon become 

 very tame and tractable, some of the natives keeping them as pets loose 

 about the farmyard. There are a few to be met with in this valley ; and 

 once I went a journey of some distance with a friend to the roosting-place 

 of a pair in the highlands near the mountain-ravines ; he told me that he 

 had often observed them in some large Algarroba trees. 



