STEIX. 6 



{Boucard), San Jose {v. Frantzius ^, Zeledon 22, Cherrie ^^) ; Panama (ArcS, in Mm. 

 Brit.). — South America generally to Brazil, Argentina and Chili 1*. 



Like the rest of the world, Mexico and Central America have their White Owl, which 

 is a fairly common bird throughout the country, and probably resident wherever it is 

 found. Its habits are doubtless so like those of the bird of the Old World and of North 

 America generally, so admirably described by Capt. Bendire ^^ and Dr. A. K. Fisher ^^, 

 that an account of them need not be repeated here. Its food, according to Dr. Fisher, 

 consists, to a very large extent, of mice and other small mammals, in a few cases of 

 locusts, grasshoppers, and other insects, and in a still fewer of small birds. 



8trix flammea, in a wide sense, is a notoriously variable bird, and few authorities 

 agree as to the extent to which local races should be recognized. Dr. Sharpe, in his 

 elaborate paper published in Rowley's ' Ornithological Miscellany,' went further than 

 his predecessors in uniting all but the most marked forms under the general title of 

 Strix flammea. American authors usually employ Bonaparte's name, S. flammea 

 fratincola, for the North- American bird, tracing its range to Mexico. In Guatemala 

 and the rest of Central America the form is distinguished as S. flammea guatemalce, 

 and the South- American as S. flammea perlata. Colour and size are the differential 

 characters selected ; these are most variable and, so far as we can see, only localized 

 to a very partial extent. The large series before us shows that Mexican birds are, 

 like those of California, white-breasted individuals, those Wvth. the underparts fawn- 

 colour occurring in about equal numbers. In Guatemala birds with fawn-coloured 

 breasts are rather more common, and all are more or less tinged with this colour. In 

 Costa Rica all are fawn-coloured ; and one Panama bird resembles another from the 

 Cauca Valley, Colombia, in having a few cross-bands on the breast, thus showing a 

 tendency to the colour of the bird of the island of Hispaniola. In size the Mexican 

 birds have a rather larger average, those of the rest of Central America being less, the 

 South- American bird being the smallest of the continental forms. 



For the American bird generally we use the oldest name, Strix perlata, applied by 

 Lichtenstein to the Strix of Brazil ^. We adopt this course as perhaps the most 

 convenient, but admit that it seems hardly possible to state any character or characters 

 by which all American birds can be distinguished from Strix flammea of the Old 

 World. 



Fam. ASIONID^. 



Sterni crista angusta, furculam summam haud attingente ; fissuris sterni ulrinque duabus. 



Eighteen genera are included in this family, which are distributed over nearly the 

 whole world, every continent, every large island, and a great number of small ones 

 including one or more Owls amongst their birds. In America thirteen genera are found, 

 of which Nyctea and Surnia are boreal, fud do not come within our limits, and of the 



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