BUBONID^ — THE OWLS. 



411 



are most variegated by the white mottling. The alula and primary coverts have very 

 indistinct bands of paler: the secondaries are crossed by nine bands (last terminal, .and 

 three concealed by coverts) of pale grayish brown, inclining to white at the borders of the 

 spots; primaries crossed by nine transverse series of quadrate spots of mottled pale 

 brownish gray on the outer webs, those beyond the emai-gination obscure,— the termi- 

 nal crescentio bar distinct, however; upper secondaries and middle tail-feathers with 

 coarse transverse mottling, almost forming bars. Tail with about nine paler bands, 

 these merely marked off by parallel, nearly white bars, enclosing a plain grayish brown, 

 sometimes slightly mottled, space, just perceptibly darker than the ground-color; 

 basally the feathers become profusely mottled, so that the bands are confused; the 

 last band is terminal. Beneath, the ground-color is grayish white, each feather 

 of the neck, breast, and abdomen with a broad, longitudinal ragged stripe of 

 dark brown, like the ground-color of the upper parts; sides, flanks, crissum. and 

 lower tail-coverts with regular transverse narrow bands; legs with finer, more irregular, 

 transverse bars of dusky. "Eyebrows," lores and chin grayish white; a dusky space at 

 anterior angle of the eye; face grayish white, with distinct concentric semicircles ot 

 blackish brown; facial circle dark brown, becoming white across the foreneck, where it 

 is divided medially by a spot of brownish black, covering the throat. 



Wing, 16.00-18.00; tail, 11.00-13.00; culmen, 1.00; tarsus, 2.30; middle toe, 1.50. 



The Old World form of this species(ci«ercM?7i lapponicum) is much 

 paler in coloration, the hghter markings predominating. The under 

 side of the primaries shows a conspicuous patch of whitish, covering 

 the basal portion of these feathers, this patch being much reduced 

 in size or altogether wanting in the American race. 



The Great Gray Owl is a northern bird of very rare or accidental 

 occurrence in Ilhnois. It is given by Mr. Nelson (p. 117 of his list) 

 as a very rare winter visitant to Cook county, but outside of this 

 record we have no knowledge of its having been taken or observed 

 anywhere in the State. 



Genus NYCTALA Brehm. 



Nyctala Bbesm, Isis, 1828, 1271. Type, Slrii, tengma!mi Gmel. 



Gen. Chae. Size small. Head very large, without ear- tufts; eyes moderate; iris 

 yellow. Two outer primaries with their inner webs distinctly emarginated. Tarsi and 

 toes densely. but closely feathered. Ear-conch very large, nearly as high as the skull, 

 with an anterior operculum; the two ears exceedingly asymmetrical, not only externally 

 but in their osteological structure. Furcula not anchylosed posteriorly, but joined by a_ 

 membrane. 



The North American species of this genus are two in number, 

 and may readily be distinguished from one another by the char- 

 acters given in the following comparative diagnosis. One of them 



