STRIX. 255 
neck, and entire lower parts pure white, the chest sometimes slightly blotched or 
spotted with brown, but usually immaculate; sides of head with a dusky stripe 
from lores across ear-coverts, and top of head usually more or less marked with 
dusky. Adult female: Similar to the male, but chest much more heavily spotted or 
blotched with brown (never immaculate). Young: Above blackish brown, each 
feather distinctly bordered terminally with white or buffy; otherwise like adult, 
the sexes differing in same manner. Downy young: Dull sooty grayish or dusky 
above, more or less mixed or tinged with rusty or fulvous, relieved by a broad 
whitish stripe down middle of back and rump; a dusky stripe on sides of head, and 
three others on top of head, separated by whitish stripes; hinder portion of wing 
whitish, anterior portion dusky; lower parts dull whitish, the chest brownish or 
dusky. Length 20.75-25.00, extent about 65.00, wing 17.00-21.00, tail 7.00-10.00, 
culmen 1.20-1.45, tarsus 1.95-2.40. West on trees near water, very bulky, composed 
of large sticks, etc. Eggs 2-4, 2.44 x 1.81, the ground-color varying from buffy 
white through various shades of buff to pale cinnamon, boldly spotted or blotched 
with rich chestnut or madder-brown and purplish gray. Hab. Temperate and 
tropical America in general, north to Hudson’s Bay and Alaska. 
364. P. haliaétus carolinensis (GmEL.). American Osprey. 
Famity STRIGIDAL.—Tue Barn Owls. (Page 218.) 
Genera. 
(Characters same as those given for the Family).......... Strix. (Page 255.) 
Genus STRIX Linnazvs. (Page 255, pl. LXXIV., fig. 1.) 
Species. 
Ground-color of upper parts ochraceous-yellow, this overlaid, more or less con- 
tinuously, by a grayish superficial tint, finely mottled and speckled with dusky and 
white; quills and tail-feathers with more or less distinct, distant, dusky bands, of 
variable number; lower parts varying from plain snowy white to bright tawny, 
speckled with dusky; face varying from pure white to tawny; length 14.75-18.00, 
wing 12.50-14.00, tail 5.50-7.50, culmen .90-1.00, tarsus 2.25-3.00, middle toe 1.25, 
or more. Nest in hollow trees, in towers, belfries, ete. Hggs 5-11, 1.67 x 1.27, 
ovate, plain white. Hab. United States generally (rarer northward) and Mexico. 
365. S. pratincola Bonap. American Barn Owl. 
Famiry BUBONIDAZ.—Tue Hornep OwLs, ETC. (Page 218.) 
(Z99s invariably plain white, usually oval, or broadly oval, sometimes nearly 
spherical.) 
Genera. 
a, Wing more than 10.00. 
b. Length of cere along top equal to or exceeding chord of culmen, the upper 
outline decidedly arched toward base. 
