264 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 
Wing 11.20-12.00, tail 6.00-6.50. Hab. Tropical America in general (except 
West Indies), north to Mexico. 
B. mexicanus (GMEL.). Striped Horned Owl) 
Genus NYCTEA Srepuens. (Page 256, pl. LXXVL., fig. 2.) 
Species. 
Adult male: Plumage pure white, sometimes almost immaculate, but usually 
marked more or less with transverse spots or bars of clear slaty brown on top of 
head, back, and scapulars, the quills and tail-feathers with dusky spots near ends; 
lower parts usually marked more or less on belly, sides, and flanks with narrow 
bars of clear slaty brown, but these markings sometimes altogether wanting; 
length about 20.00-23.00, wing 15.50-17.30, tail 9.00-9.70, culmen 1.00. Adult fe- 
male: Much darker colored than the male, only the face, fore-neck, middle of 
breast, and feet being immaculate, other portions being heavily barred with dusky, 
the top of head and hind-neck spotted with the same; length 23.00-27.00, wing 
17.30-18.70, tail 9.70-10.30, culmen 1.10. Downy young: Uniform dusky brown, or 
deep sooty grayish, paler on legs and feet. Nest on ground. Hggs 3-10, 2.24 x 
1.77. Hab. Extreme northern portions of northern hemisphere in summer, mi- 
grating southward in winter (in North America almost across the United States, 
and even reaching, accidentally, the Bermudas). 
376. N. nyctea (Linn.). Snowy Owl. 
Gents SURNIA Domérin. (Page 256, pl. LX XIII, fig. 4.) 
Species. 
Common CuHaracters.—Adult: Top of head and hind-neck spotted with white 
and blackish, or dark brown, in varying relative proportion; a patch of uniform 
blackish or dark brown on each side of hind-neck, and another across hinder por- 
tion of ear-coverts; rest of upper parts brown, the scapulars heavily spotted or 
blotched, wings more or less spotted, upper tail-coverts broadly and distinctly 
barred, and tail narrowly and indistinctly barred, with white; face and lower 
parts white, the lower breast, belly, sides, flanks, and under tail-coverts very regu- 
larly barred with brown. Young: Upper parts dark sepia-brown, the feathers 
of top of head and hind-neck tipped with dull grayish buff, which constitutes the 
prevailing color; feathers of back, and scapulars, indistinctly tipped with dull gray- 
ish buff; lores and ear-coverts plain brownish black, rest of face dull whitish ; lower 
parts dull whitish, deeply shaded across chest with dark sooty brownish, other 
portions being broadly but rather indistinctly barred with brown, these markings; 
narrower and more confused anteriorly, and on legs. Length about 14.75-17.50, 
wing about 9.00, tail 6.80—7.00. 
1 Strix mexicana GaEL., 8, N. i. 1788, 288. Bubo meaicanue Rivew., in Hist. N. Am. B. iii. 1874, 61. 
