40 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



flushed a bird of this species from its nest above my head. The Owl 

 alighted iu a tree so close to me that had I given it a full charge of No. 

 9 shot it would have been blown to pieces. I watched it some time in 

 hopes it would fly a little farther off; but it had no idea of taking its eyes 

 from me. I therefore gave it a half charge of dust, and, to my surprise, 

 it got away from me. It was in very light gray plumage, and looked 

 to me like a faded specimen of our Northeastern bird. The nest con- 

 tained three perfectly fresh eggs, was situated about ten feet from the 

 ground in a dead stub about nine inches in diameter, and so weak and 

 rotten that I could have pushed it over. The eggs are pure white, and 

 nearly round. They measure 1.35 by 1.12, 1.35 by 1.18, and 1.40 by 1.17. 

 The location was about four miles from Hidalgo, up the river, and within 

 about one-fourth of a mile of its bank.* 



Glaucidium ferrugineum. — Ferrugineous Owl. 



[ ^ vertice toto alhido lineato nee punctata, caudd toid ferrugined tceniis septem ad novem fus- 

 c^-nigris regulariter transfasciatd; dorso olivaceo-fusco, innotato; scapularibus maculis magnis 

 singularihus aut binis subterminalibus notaiis ; torque nuchali nigro, alhido et luteo variegato; 

 remigibus dorso concoloribus, rufo transfasciaiis, necnon intus albido dentatis ; rostro eflavo 

 viresoente, iridibus flavis ; long. tot. G^ poll., alar. exp. U; aim 2^; eaudce2^. 



$ , adult, in the "brown " or normal plumage: Tail entirely ferrugineous, or light 

 che8tnut-red, crossed with 7 to 9 bars of blackish-brown — these bars of the same width 

 as the rufous interspaces, and both sets of markings quite regular and transverse. 

 (These tail-marks distinguish the species in any plumage from G. gnoma.) Entire top 

 of the head, above the superciliary ridges, and sides of the head behind the auricu- 

 lars, olivaceous-brown, like the back, but streaked with small, sharp, and distinct lines 

 of white or fulvous-whitish ; these markings being on the forehead and most of the 

 crown like pin-scratches in the sharpness of their definition, and though a little less 

 so behind the ears, everywhere retaining their narrow linear character. (In Q. gnoma, 

 the head-markings are dots and spots, not lines.) Back like the head,olivaceous-brown, 

 but without markings, except on the scapulars, most of which feathers have each one 

 a large, rounded, white spot on the outer web near the end, .and more or fewer pairs of 

 fulvous spots farther along on both webs. Color of back and head divided by an ob- 

 vious cervical collar, consisting of a series of diffuse whitish, and another similar of ful- 

 vous spots, separated by a nearly continuous line of black. Upper tail-coverts usually 

 more or less rufescent, approximating to the ground-color of the tail itself. Remiges 

 olivaceous-fuscous, like the back, the primaries imperfectly and indistinctly, the sec- 

 ondaries completely and decidedly, cross-barred with numerous rufescent bands, nar- 

 rower than the dark intervals, besides which markings some of the primaries have au 

 incompleted series of small whitish or very pale fulvous spots along the outer edge, 

 and all have large and deep indentations of white or whitish along the inner web — 

 these white indentations increasing in size from the ends toward the bases of all the 

 feathers, and also growing larger on individual feathers from the outer primaries to the 

 inner secondaries, on which last they reach quite across the under webs. Lining of 

 wings white, with an oblique dark bar, and another curved dark bar, the latter across 

 the ends of the under coverts. The under parts are difficult of descrii)tion, owing to 

 the diffuseness of the markings ; we may say ground-color of under parts white, heavily 

 streaked along the sides with the color of the back ; this color extending quite across 

 the breast, where, however, the feathers have centrally dilated shaft-lines of whitish ; 

 chin and throat white, divided into two areas by a blackish or dark gular collar, which 

 curves across from one postauricular regiou to the other. Auriculars dark, sharply 



* [.Having examined no siJecimens, the identification is tentative. — E. C] 



