2^A Hasbrouck, Distribution of North American Megascops. \\^\t 



a single instance appears to be known of its occurrence at a 

 greater elevation than five hundred feet. It is essentially a bird 

 of the low country, although not found on the Atlantic coast 

 farther north than about Lat. 34 , while in the Mississippi Valley 

 it may go a trifle beyond that, but no data exist for such as- 

 sumption, and its distribution across this great river basin is to 

 a certain extent hypothetical. The type specimen of this species, 

 deposited in the U. S. National Museum, was described from 

 Indian River, Florida, by Ridgway in 1873. The race occurs 

 throughout the Gulf States to about the southern limit of the 

 preceding, or to about Lat. 33 or 34 . Just how far west it 

 extends is uncertain, but probably to extreme eastern Texas, as 

 it has been taken in De Soto Parish, Louisiana, just over the 

 border. Inasmuch as the Austroriparian region extends into 

 Texas as far west as Long. 9S , it is not improbable that 

 Jloridamts occurs within the limits of this State. 

 The following are the records of its distribution. 



South Carolina. Charleston (Arthur T. Wayne, in epist.) ; Grahams 

 Turnout (specimen in U. S. Nat. Mus.) ; Mount Pleasant (spec, in coll. 

 Wm. Brewster); Macphersonville (spec, in coll. Win. Brewster). 



Georgia. Broro Neck (spec, in coll. Wm. Brewster) ; Macon (spec, in 

 U. S. Nat. Mus.) ; St. Simon s Island, Wayne Co., and Mcintosh Co. 

 (H. B. Bailey, Bull. N. O. C. 1883,41); Safelo Island (spec, in U. S. 

 Nat. Mus.). 



Florida. Gainesville (spec, in U. S. Nat. Mus.) ; Indian River (type 

 specimen in U. S. Nat. Mus.) ; Palatka (spec, in coll. E. M. 

 Hasbrouck) ; Caloosahatchee River (W. E. D. Scott, Auk, IX, 1S92, 132). 



Louisiana. New Orleans (spec, in coll. Dr. A. K. Fisher); Mandeville 

 and De Solo Parish (spec, in Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.). 



Megascops asio mccallii (Cass.). Texan Screech Owl. 



The Texan Screech Owl was described by Cassin in 1S54 

 from Texas, and if the more southern records are to be relied 

 upon (the authority places them almost beyond doubt), the dis- 

 tribution is one of the most peculiar of any of the group. We 

 first meet with it in Texas at Gainesville (an apparently excep- 

 tional record) ; in the vicinity of Houston ; in Lee, Tom Green, 

 and Concho Counties, as far west probably as Long. 104 . At 

 Gainesville Mr. Ragsdale records it as uncommon, but it ap- 



