118 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



as in acadica; feet huffy, spotted with brown; under tail-coverts striped with 

 brown ; stripes on under parts usually less ruddy than in the next species. 

 Length 9-12 inches; extent 24; wing 6.6-7.4; tail 4.2-4.7. 



Distribution. This boreal species breeds from northern British 

 Columbia, Alberta and the Magdalen islands northward to the limit of 

 trees, being the Nearctic representative of the Palearctic C. funerea 

 f u n e r e a. In winter it has been taken occasionally as far south as New 

 England, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Nebraska. Only two 

 definite records for New York are before me; the first a specimen taken 

 at Hecla Works (Lowell), Oneida county, February 1893, by J. S. All- 

 wood, and now in the State collection; and the other taken at North 

 Elba, Essex county, about the middle of December 1896, by Ezra 

 Cornell, jr. 



Cryptoglaux acadica acadica (Gmelin) 

 Saw-whet Owl 



Plate 55 



Strix acadica Gmelin. Syst. Nat. 1788. 1:296 

 Ulula acadica DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 30, fig. 23 

 Cryptoglaux acadica acadica. A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. 

 p. 172. No. 372 



acadica, of Acadia 



Description. The smallest New York owl; no ear tufts; upper parts 

 brown, with short white streaks on front and top of head, and larger white 

 spots on back of head, scapulars and back; the wing and tail feathers spotted 

 with white on either web, forming interrupted bars; under parts whitish 

 striped with reddish brown; face whitish with a blackish space around 

 and in front of the. eye, border of the disk dark brown spotted with white; 

 feet plain huffy white; bill blackish; eyes yellow. Young: Upper parts 

 and forward portion of lower parts plain chocolate brown; rest of under 

 parts brownish yellow; no streaks; face sooty brown. 



Length 7.25-8.5 inches; extent 17-18; wing 5.2-5.9; tail 2.7-3.2; 

 tarsus .75. 



Distribution. This owl has been regarded as rare, or at least uncom- 

 mon, in nearly all the local lists of New York birds, but its retiring habits 

 are undoubtedly responsible for its not being rated as fairly common in 

 many portions of the State. It is perhaps less common than the Long- 



