I4.0 Brewster, Descriftiotif. of Metv Birds. [April 



loss to suggest its probably nearest affine among them. I had the 

 skin of Mr. Aii^en who, if I remember aright, asserted that it 

 was a fair representative of the form which inhabits cottonwood 

 timber along streams in the plains region about Colorado Springs, 

 waA'xt'^///^, of which he showed me several typical specimens, 

 being confined to the neighboring mountains. According to Capt. 

 Bendire, however, the latter form has been found breeding in 

 cottonwoods on the Platte River within six miles of Denver 

 (Auk, VI, October, 1SS9, p. 298). 



Megascops asio macfarlanei,* new subspecies. MacFarlane's 

 Screech Owl. 



SuBSPEC. CHAR.— Of the size of M. keuuicotti, but with the color and 

 markings of M. bendirei. 



Female ad. (No. 6456, collection of William Brewster, Fort Walla Walla, 

 Washington, October 22, 1S81 ; Capt. Charles E. Bendire, U. S. A.).— 

 Ground color above brownish ash tinged with vinaceous, darkest on the 

 head and back, palest on the wings, with confused, often nearly obsolete, 

 transverse bars and longitudinal shaft stripes of dull black, broadest and 

 most numerous on the crown; outer edges of scapulars and alula-coverts 

 cream color, the former tipped and narrowly margined with black; secon- 

 daries and inner webs of primaries crossed by six or seven bars of pale 

 reddish brown or rusty white; outer webs of primaries with broad, quad- 

 rate spots of brownish white; tail regularly but faintly barred with light 

 reddish brown; feathers of the sides of head and neck thickly but finely 

 mottled with dusky on a lighter ground ; lores nearly pure white, but the 

 shafts and tips of the feathers dusky or brownish; a somewhat broken, 

 facial circle of black and chestnut spots and blotches; beneath ashy 

 white, lightest on the abdomen, with numerous, fine, regular, transverse 

 bars of black and coarse shaft-stripes of the same color, many of these 

 bars and stripes bordered with pale rusty, the only immaculate space 

 being the middle of the abdomen, which is creamy white; lining of wings 

 and concealed silky plumage of sides under the wings pale ochraceous; 

 some of the under wing-coverts barred with brown ; feathering of legs dull 

 rusty chestnut, faintly barred with reddish brown. Wing, 7.23; tail, 3.85; 

 tarsus, 1.67; length of bill from nostril, .57 inch. 



Male ad. (No. 6457, collection of William Brewster, Fort Walla Walla, 

 Washington, November 20, 1881 ; Capt. Charles E. Bendire, U. S. A.). — 

 Similar to the female, but smaller, the dark markings coarser and better 

 defined. Wing, 6.96; tail, 3.80; tarsus, 1.50; length of bill from nostril, 

 •53 »"ch. 



*Named, at Capt. Bendire's request, for Mr. Robert MacFarlane who, as is well 

 known, was a personal friend of Robert Kennicott and an enterprising and accom- 

 plished field ornithologist. 



