AO Nelson and Palmer on Five New Birds from Mexico. Man. 



outer web. Near the base of outer quills these spots are nearly pure 

 white on some feathers becoming cinnamon toward the tips. On inner 

 quills they are all dull cinnamon. Secondaries and tertials clove brown 

 with dull cinnamon bars on outer webs, most of these bars being mottled 

 with the ground color of the feathers. On inner vanes of quills and 

 secondaries the pale spots on outer vanes are matched by indistinct light 

 bars. This mottling mixed with gray extends over most of the surface 

 of innermost tertials. Large quill of alula bordered with a fine white 

 edging connecting three pure white spots on outer web. Both webs of 

 second quill of alula and inner web of larger quill with three spots of didl 

 cinnamon. Lesser and middle coverts smoke brown with faint mottling 

 of cinnamon. Greater coverts clove brown bordered along outer vane by 

 mottling and spots of grayish and dull cinnamon. Tail, color of quills, 

 narrowlv barred with broken lines and mottling of pale cinnamon. 



Unfortunately the only specimen of this bird in the collection 

 is immature. It is very different in the character of its mark- 

 ings from the young of any other known Megascops . The 

 specimen was killed in the pines at the northeast base of the 

 Cofre de Perote near Las Vigas, in Vera Cruz, at an altitude of 

 over 8,000 feet. 



Megascops ridgwayi, 1 sp. nov. 



TypeNo. 13151S, U. S. National Museum, Department of Agriculture 

 Collection, from Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico, July 23, 1892. Collected 

 by E. W. Nelson. ^Original No. 21S, sex unknown.) 



Measurements (taken from dry skin): Wing, 146 mm. (5.75 in.) ; tail, 

 65 mm. (2.55 in.) ; tarsus, 30.5 mm. (1.20 in.). 



Color.— Entire top and sides of head and neck, back and rump, dull 

 cinnamon-rufous. Feathers of crown and back streaked with narrow 

 shaft-lines of blackish with faint indications of transverse mottling or bars. 

 The quills, secondaries and tertials are hair-brown with rows of sub- 

 quadrate spots along the outer webs not quite reaching to the shaft. 

 These spots are a little longer than broad and are about the same color 

 as the back except on the quills and about the bend of the wing where they 

 become paler and are almost white in a few places. The inner webs of 

 the quill feathers are crossed by faintly marked bars of lighter shade, 

 matching the spots on outer web. On the inner webs of secondaries and 



1 We take pleasure in dedicating this species to Mr. Robert Ridgway, Curator of 

 Birds in the U. S. National Museum, to whom we are indebted for many courtesies. 



