6 University of CnJifoniia Puhlivaiions in Zoology. [Vol.7 



S. N. Rhoads reported seeing- several in Jnne on a rocky hill 

 opposite Tucson (1892, p. 115). This is rather surprising 

 (especially to one who has seen this same rocky hill), when the 

 general habits and the country usually frequented by birds of 

 this genus are taken into consideration. Another record that 

 must be received with caution is that of Jones (1900, p. 14), who 

 includes the species in a list of birds seen at IMellen, Arizona (on 

 the Colorado River), July 5. Neither of these two records rests 

 upon the basis of specimens actually secured, and in each case 

 the locality is far out of the kno\^Ti zonal range of the species. 



I recorded the spotted owl from the Huachuca IMountains on 

 the basis of one specimen secured and others seen or heard (Pac. 

 Coast Avifauna, no. 4, 1904, p. 8). The one obtained (the basis 

 of the present description) was taken on Sutherland's ranch, 

 near the mouth of Cave Caiion, on the west side of the mountains 

 at an altitude of approximately 5500 feet. Others were ob- 

 served at various points in the range up to about 9000 feet, 

 usually in dense clumps of maples in the creek beds, or in the 

 thickets of quaking aspen. 



]\Ir. John Lewis Childs has a set of eggs included in the 

 published list of his collection (1906, p. 81), entered as follows: 

 "2 (eggs) Ariz. May." In a letter Mr. Childs informed me that 

 this set was taken in the Huachuca Mountains in I\Iay, 1891, by 

 0. Poling. 



I was informed by a relialile observer that he had seen the 

 species in the Chiricahua IMountains, so we have at least three 

 authentic points of occurrence in southeastern Arizona, these 

 three places being about equidistant, and approximately one 

 hundred miles apart. Proper environmental conditions for the 

 occurrence of this owl prevail throughout the higher mountains 

 of central Arizona and western New IMexico, as well as in north- 

 ern ^Mexico, but there is a vast stretch of country across south- 

 western Arizona and southern California which is altogether 

 unsuited to its requirements. If the ranges of occidenfalis and 

 hiiachucae prove to be continuous the point of jiniction will 

 probably be somewhere in Nevada. 



Authentic instances of the breeding of Stri.r occidoitalis in 

 California are sufficiently rare to justify the mention in this 



