700 



PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



white or buffy white strongest, and finally the vent and lower abdomen, 



as well as the under tail-coverts and the feathered portion of the legs, 



clear, immaculate silvery white, silky in appearance. 



Bill : Yellowish, shading into dusky at the base. 



Iris : Orange-yellow. 



Fig. 359. 



Speotyto cuniailaria. Emargination of primaries. Natural size. 



Feet: The toes bare and with short hairy covering above, the tarsus 

 feathered, except beneath, where it is yellowish green. 



The female cited taken on the same day and in the same region is 

 larger than the male and very similar in appearance except that the dark 

 color is stronger on the under surface, the chest, breast and fore-abdomen. 



Both birds have evidently only shortly completed the moult and are in 

 exceptionally fine unworn plumage ; the suffusion of the colors of the 

 lower parts by the whitish filamentous tips of the feathers is marked. 



Young birds of the year and immature individuals from this region have 

 not come under notice, but presumably are like the well known stages 

 of the same age in the congeneric forms prevailing throughout all of South 

 and the western part of North America. 



GeograpJiical Range. — South America, from southern Patagonia to 

 Central America in open plain-like country. 



On page 121 of his narrative, Mr. Hatcher speaks of this little owl as 

 one of the features of the regions traversed by the Princeton Expeditions, 

 wherever the character of the country was suitable. The birds are per- 



