124 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



on the breast, are a rich, dark fuscous, edged rather broadly with umber. 

 Lower belly tinged with buffy, giving a richer appearance than that of 0. 

 choliba. The general tone of the under parts is light, however, choliba being 

 more grayish. 



Measurements of type. — Wing, 158 mm. ; tail, 192; culmen (from base), 20 ; 

 (from cere), 13 ; tarsus, 32. 



Gray phase. — The specimen described above appears to represent the red 

 phase of this bird, while the gray phase is represented in the specimen taken by 

 a native collector, Pablo Perera, for Mr. E. H. Thompson, at Chichen-Itza in 

 1890, and marked on the label as a female. This specimen resembles very 

 closely the type, except in lacking, for the most part, the buffy suffusion, and in 

 having a finer reticulation (consisting of more transverse fuscous bars ) of the 

 under parts. Measurements : wing, 160 mm.; tail, 84; culmen (from base), 22 ; 

 (from cere), 13 ; tarsus, 37. 



The single specimen of this owl which I obtained was brought to me by one 

 of the Indians, so that I am unable to give any further notes regarding it. It 

 has been described as new only after having been compared carefully with 

 specimens of 0. choliba in the U. S. National Museum by Mr. E. W. Nelson, 

 and with a small series in the collection of Messrs E. A. and 0. Bangs, by Mr. 

 Outram Bangs and myself. There appears to be more or less of a gradation of 

 the birds of this species in passing from Brazil to southern Mexico. Two speci- 

 mens in the Bangs collection, from Costa Rica, approach most closely to the 

 Yucatan birds, but lack the clearness of the white which appears in the under 

 parts of the latter. 



Salvin and Godman (Biol. Centr.-Amer., 3, p. 21) report a specimen of 

 " Scops guatemalae (which they make synonymous with Megascops brazilianus=0. 

 choliba) collected by Dr. G. F. Gaumer at Tizimin, Yucatan. It seems 

 reasonable to suppose that this specimen belongs to the Yucatan race, although 

 Otus guatemalae, which is undoubtedly distinct from Otus choliba, and in a large 

 part co-extensive with it, may really extend northward into the peninsula. 



32. *Glaucidium phalaenoid.es ridgwayi (Sharpe). 



Ridgway's Ferruginous Pigmy Owl. 



Maya name, to'-ka-hiuk'. Literally to'-ka means one who picks or pecks 

 stone, hiuk is an old woman — the "old woman stone picker." The stones 

 (metatl, Mexican ; ka, Maya) on which corn for tortillas is ground are usually 

 roughened by the old women, and the name to'-ka-snuk' is applied to this little 

 owl because its note is supposed to resemble the sound made in the operation. 



Three specimens : 



a. $, Feb. 18, 1904. 



b. $, March 7, 1904. 



c. (alcoholic), 1904. 



Common. Apparently largely diurnal in habits. Turns the head with a 

 jerky motion, and also jerks the tail at short intervals. Iris, light yellow. 



