I 8 Rhoads, Washington and British Columbia Birds. la" 



and larger than Arizona specimens. The Spotted Owl has heretofore 

 been considered representative of the Lower Sonoran Fauna; that it. 

 should thus suddenly appear on the Boreal horizon is somewhat startling. 



Bubo virginianus. Great Horned Owl. 



Bubo virginianus saturatus. Dusky Horned Owl. 



Bubo virginianus subarcticus. Western Horned Owl. 



Bubo virginianus arcticus. Arctic Horned Owl. — The distribution 

 of resident and visiting forms of Horned Owls throughout British Colum- 

 bia is most confusing. I have examined about thirty specimens, repre- 

 senting all localities visited. Of these, six from the region between the 

 Cascade and Rocky Mountains (Ashcroft to Vernon) are almost typical 

 virginianus; three from Vernon are as dark as lighter specimens of satu- 

 ratus from the coast, and six others from the same place grade from typi- 

 cal subarcticus nearly into arcticus. It is probable that two winter 

 specimens in the collection of Mr. W. C. Pound, at Vernon, are arcticus. 



The presence of individuals so closely resembling virginianus, west of 

 the Rocky Mountains, is the most striking example of the frequent repro- 

 duction of eastern forms in the northwest I have vet observed. The reap- 

 pearance of the dark saturatus phase upon the well-watered slopes of the 

 Selkirk Range, and their disappearance a few miles farther east on the 

 Rockies, tallies perfectly with the local climatic conditions of those 

 regions. If we consider the extreme susceptibility to environment dis- 

 played by certain genera of North American Owls, and their tendency to 

 dichromatic variation, the mixed condition of the Bubo virginianus group 

 becomes less puzzling. The occurrence of saturatus in Labrador and on the 

 mountain peaks of Idaho and Arizona, as testified by Ridgway and Mer- 

 riam, is in keeping with my own experience. From such a state of affairs 

 to the voluntary, individual assumption of color characters according with 

 sudden local changes of environment, is a step in development too short 

 to be impossible. 



Glaucidium gnoma. Pygmy Owl. — That the California Pygmy Owl 

 of the Pacific slope of British Columbia is sparingly replaced by true 

 gnoma in the interior, is shown by several specimens taken by Mr. Pound 

 of Vernon, one of which is in the collection. 



Colaptes cafer-(-auratus. 'Hybrid' Flicker. — A paper on 'Hybridism 

 as exemplified in the genus Colaptes,' in the issue of 'Science' for Dec. 9, 

 1892, embodies my observations on this interesting group. 



Corvus americanus. American Crow. 



Corvus caurinus. Northwest Crow. — Thirty specimens of Crows 

 from British Columbia and the shores of Puget Sound, Washington, of 

 which fifteen are in the Streator collection and fifteen in mine, give the 

 following measurements (in inches). 



