BIEDS OF NORTH ANO MIDDLE AMEEIOA. 635 



phalanges and under side) similarly clothed, the distal feathers over- 

 lapping base of claws. 



Coloration. — Dusky grayish brown, or sooty, and grayish white, 

 the former predominating above, the latter prevailing below; the 

 upper parts varied by irregular markings having a transverse tend- 

 ency, the lower parts with the darker markings in the form of 

 ragged longitudinal stripes giving way to transverse bars on flanks; 

 face grayish white with narrow concentric rings of dusky; bill pale 

 yellow; iris lemon yellow. 



Range. — Boreal forests of Northern Hemisphere. (Monotypic.) 



KEY TO THE SUBSPECIES OF 8C0TIAPTEX NBBULOSA. 



a. Coloration darker, with, darker stripes less evident above, less sharply defined 

 below, the white of under parts more barred or mottled. (Northern North 

 America) Scotiaptex nebtilosa nebulosa (p. 635). 



aa. Coloration paler, with darker stripes distinct, both above and below, the white of 

 under parts to a great extent immaculate. (Northern Europe and Asia.) 



Scotiaptex nebulosa lapponica (extralimitail)." 



SCOTIAPTEX NEBULOSA NEBULOSA (Forster). 



GREAT GSA? OWL. 



Adults (sexes alike). — General color of upper parts dusky grayish 

 brown or sooty, broken by transverse mottlings (mostly on edges of 



« Strix lapponica Thunberg, K. Vet.-Ak. nya Handb., xix, 1798, 184 (Lappmark); 

 Naumann, Vog. Deutschl., Nachtr., 1847, pi. 349. — Ulula lapponica Lesson, Man. 

 d'Om., i, 1827, 113.— Sumia dnerea Gould, Birds Europe, i, pt. 14, Sept. -1, 1835, pi. 42 

 and text. — Symium lapponieum Strickland, Cm. Syn., i, 1855, 188; Dresser, Birds 

 Europe, v, 1878, pi. 308 and text; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus.,ii, 1875, 254. — [Symium 

 cinerewm} var. lapponieum Eidgway, in Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Hist. N. Am. 

 Birds, iii, 1874, 29. — Scotiaptex dnerea lapponieum Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. N. H., xxi, 

 190#, 245 (Marcova, n. e. Siberia). — Scotiaptex dnerea lapponica American Oridtholo- 

 gists' Union, Suppl. to Check List, 1889, 21; Abridged Check List, 1889, and Check 

 List, 2 ed., 1895, no. 370a. — Strix dnerea lapponica Coues, Check List, 2d ed., 1882, 

 no. 475. — Scotiaptex nebulosa lapponica Preble, North Am. Fauna, no. 22, 1902, 109. — 

 Asia lapponicus Seebohm, Ibis, 1882, 373 (Archangel, n. Russia). — Stryz barlata Pal- 

 las, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat., i, 1826, 318, pi. 2 (eastern Siberia). — Symium dnereum (not 

 Strix dnerea Gmelin) Bonaparte, Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, 6, part; Fritsch, Vog. 

 Europ., 1869-70, pi. 12, fig. &.— Strix tnicrophfhalmos Tyzenhauza, Cm. Pow., i, 1842, 

 86, frontispiece (new name for Strix lapponica Thunberg). 



Specimens from the Yukon delta, Alaska, formerly referred to this form, prove to 

 be rather light-colored examples oiS.n. nebulosa. 



In Die Vogel der Palaarktischen Fauna, heft viii (bd. ii, 2), August, 1913, not seen 

 untn after the above was in type. Dr. Hartert separates the Palsearctic representa- 

 tives of this species into three subspecies, as follows: (1) Strix nebulosa lapponica 

 (p. 1014) ; northern Europe and western Siberia. (2) Strix nebulosa harbata (p. 1016) ; 

 eastern Siberia. (3) Strix nebulosa sahhalinends (p. 1016); Sakhalin Island {Symium 

 dnereum sakhalinense Buturlin, Journ. fur Orn., July, 1907, 832, 334). It is possible 

 that the light colored examples from western Alaska, above referred to, may belong 

 to the East Siberian form {Scotiaptex nebulosa barbata), but comparison with examples 

 of the latter has not yet been made. < 



