12 ASIONID^. 



M. Boucard obtained a specimen at Cinco Senores in Oaxaca, as recorded by Mr. Sclater 

 in ]8583, and since tben Don F. Ferrari-Perez secured one at Chimalpa in the Valley 

 of Mexico : these are the only two records we have of the existence of the species in 

 Mexico ; and though it no doubt occurs throughout the mountain regions of Central 

 Mexico, it appears to have escaped the notice of Sumichrast and Herrera. In 

 Guatemala still less is known of it, for a stuffed specimen in a small collection of birds 

 made by Don Valentin Escobar in the neighbourhood of Quezaltenango, which Salvin 

 examined in the city of Guatemala in July 1873, is the only one we have seen from that 

 country. This bird was in the young brown plumage with white eyebrows, formerly 

 known as N. albifrons. N. acadica has never been seen southward of Guatemala. 



From Dr. Fisher's analysis of the food of this Owl '', it would appear to consist to a 

 large extent of mice, and only occasionally of small birds and insects. 



Aurium operculo nullo. 

 Cornuti. 



BUBO. 



Bubo, Cuvier, R^gne Anim. 1817, p. 331 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. ii. p. 12. 



The range of Bubo is very extensive, and includes the greater part of the world, 

 except Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, New Guinea, and the Moluccas. Of the 

 seventeen or eighteen species distributed over this wide area, only three closely allied 

 forms occur in America, of which B. virginianus is by far the commonest and most 

 widely dispersed, being found alike in North, Central, and South America, aud in the 

 latter countries it is by far the largest of the Striges. 



The ear-tufts are large and conspicuous in Bubo, the cere of the bill is not tumid, 

 the nostrils oval and placed at the margin of the cere, the wings are comparatively 

 short, not reaching to the end of the tail, and the tarsi are always densely feathered at 

 least to the base of the toes, and in the case of B. virginianus the toes also are densely 

 feathered. 



1. Bubo virginianus. 



Great Horned Owl, Edwards, Nat. Hist. Birds, ii. t. 60 '. 



Strix virginiana, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 287 ^ 



Bubo virginianm, Scl. P. Z. S. 1859, p. 390'; 1860, p. 253*; Scl. & Salv. 1860, p. 276'; Salv. 



P. Z. S. 1870, p. 216 ° 5 Cat. Strickl. Coll. p. 472'; Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ix. pp. 132 \ 



207'; BuU. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 37"; Duges, La Nat. i. p. 138"; v. Prantz. J. f. 



Orn. 1869, p. 366"; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. ii. p. 19"; Sumichrast, La Nat. v. 



p. 237"; Herrera, La Nat. (2) i. pp. 178, 321"; Bendire, Life Hist. N.Am. Birds, i. 



p. 376, t. 12. f. 12 " ; Fisher, Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. no. 9, p. 174, t. 24 ". 

 Bubo virginianus, var. virginianus, &c., Bidgw. in Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. Birds iii 



p. 62". 



