27 2 Stone, Geuoic A^ames of Nortli American O-mIs. I I "iv 



ON THE GENERIC NAMES OF T^E NORTH 

 AMERICAN OWLS. 



BY WITMER STONE. 



As IS well known, there has been considerable difference of 

 opinion among ornithologists as to what species of owl should be 

 regarded as the type of the Linnaean genus Strix. In the 

 A. O. U. Check-List the question was decided in favor of the Barn 

 Owl, which consequently stands as Strix fla7nmea. In 'The Auk ' 

 for January, 1900, p. 65, the late Dr. Coues raised the claim that 

 when Brisson, in 1760. divided the Linnaean genus into Strix and 

 Asio he fixed Strix stridula as the type of the former. This ques- 

 tion has been before the A. O. U. Committee on Nomenclature 

 ever since, and it was in the course of investigating into its merits 

 that I discovered other complications in the nomenclature of our 

 Owls, which have led to the present paper. 



Before entering upon a general discussion of the subject I may 

 say, that I can find no warrant for Dr. Coues's claim. Brisson 

 simply gave generic names to the two groups of owls which 

 Linnaius termed (under his genus Strict) '■auriculatce ' and ' inauricu- 

 latce ' ; and gave no indication of a type. This fact seems to me 

 perfectly clear, and were there no other questions involved the 

 generic names of our owls would remain as at present. Unfor- 

 tunately, however, such is not the case, and Dr. Coues's further 

 claim that "the last word on the subject has not yet been said" 

 is abundantly proven. 



To begin at the beginning: Linnaeus, in the loth edition of his 

 ' Systema,' included all the owls known to him in the genus Strix, 

 arranging them in two groups as follows 



AURICULATyE. InAURICULAT.'E. 



/>ut>o. aluco i(=.flammea of XII ed.). 



scandiaca (doubtful). funci-ea (doubtful). 



asio. iiyctea. 



otiis. stridula. 



Stops. ,' iilula. 



i>asseri?ia. 



