264 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



"Wing 11.20-12.00, tail 6.00-6.50. Sab. Tropical America in general (except 

 West Indies), north to Mexico. 



B. mexicanus (Gmel.). Striped Homed Owl. 1 



Gentts NYCTEA Stephens. (Page 256, pi. 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. Eggs 5-10, 2.24 X 

 1.76. Sab. 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. 



Genus SURNIA Dumeril. (Page 256, pi. LXXIIL, fig. 4.) 



Species. 



Common Characters. — 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 Gmel., S. N. i. 1788, 288. Bubo mexicanus Ridsw., in Hist. N. Am. B. iii. 1874, 61. 



