THE FLOKIDA BARRED OWL. 343 



to four eggs, while in Lee County, Texas, according to Mr. J. A. Singley, they 

 are the commonest Owls found in that part of the State. Here it nests usually 

 in the latter half of February or the first week in March, and it seems to lay 

 but two eggs, corresponding in this respect to the Florida birds. In seven- 

 teen nests found by him, none contained more than that number of eggs or 

 young. The cavities in which these Owls nested were of various depths and 

 dimensions, some of them fully 2 feet deep and 15 inches in diametep, others 

 quite shallow, not over 10 inches deep. The eggs are deposited at intervals 

 of several days, and incubation seems to begin with the first egg laid. 



The eggs of the Florida Barred Owl are very similar in color and shape 

 to those of the common Barred Owl; one of the specimens before me is a 

 perfect ovate. The average measurement of eight eggs of this subspecies 

 from Florida, all collected by Dr. Ralph, is 51.1 by 42.7 millimetres, the larg- 

 est measuring 53.5 by 46, the smallest 47.3 by 40 6, while the average meas- 

 urement of fifteen eggs of this race from Texas, is 48.5 by 41.5 millimetres., 

 and judging from the small number of Florida specimens before me, these, in 

 this instance at least, average larger than the eggs of the common Barred Owl. 



116. Syrnium occidentale XANTUS. 



/ 



SPOTTED OWL. 



Syrnium occidentale XANTUS, Proceedings Academy Natural Sciences, Phila. , 1859, 193. 



(B , C 324, R 398, C 478, U 369.) 



GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE: Highlands of Mexico; north to southern Colorado, New 

 Mexico, Arizona, California, and Lower California. 



The range of Syrnium occidentale, the western representative of the Barred 

 Owl, and a somewhat darker colored bird, as far as is known at present, extends 

 through the mountain regions of California, south to Arizona, thence east to 

 New Mexico, and north to southern Colorado. It has also been met with in 

 the mountains of Lower California and extends southward over the higher 

 table-lands of Mexico to Guanajuato, latitude 21. 



Mr. Xantus, one of the pioneer naturalists of the Pacific coast, discovered 

 the Spotted Owl in the vicinity of Fort Tejon, California, in the southern Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains, and described it in the Proceedings of the Academy of Nat- 

 ural Sciences of Philadelphia in 1859. This specimen remained unique until I 

 found the bird again in the spring of 1872, in the vicinity of Whipple's Station, 

 some 10 miles northwest of Tucson, Arizona. Since then it has been met with 

 in other places in the West, but it does not appear to be an abundant species 

 anywhere, except perhaps in Calaveras County, California, where Mr. L. field- 

 ing reports it common in summer and perhaps in winter. According to his 

 observations it frequents the densest parts of the fir forests. On June 13, 1882, 

 a male and female were shot together in the early evening. 1 Mr. R. B. Herron 

 also obtained a specimen midway between San Diego and Riverside, in south- 

 ern California in the tall of 1885. 



' Belding's Birds of the Pacific District, 1890, p. 49. 



