1893.] Evolution in the Genus Megascops. 527 
their plumage at precisely the same time and in the same 
manner as the reds, only that their feathers are gray instead 
of rufous. If the above simple facts are borne in mind, no 
trouble need be experienced in undertanding the appearance 
of the two plumages. 
The first step in the work was to ascertain the relative pro- 
portion of the red and gray phase in every section of the area 
covered by the asio group of Megascops affected by dichroma- 
tism. For this purpose nearly one thousand copies of the cir- 
cular letter referred to in the introduction, were sent to the 
ornithologists distributed over this territory. Over two hun- 
dred replies were received, a few of which failed to be suffici- 
ently explicit to make their contents available, but enough 
were obtained to compile in a reasonably accurate manner the 
map showing the distribution of the two color phases (map 2). 
On the northern border of the range of Megascops asio 
where gray is the only form known (see map 2), corre- 
spondents from southern Ontario state that at occasional rare 
intervals a red specimen has been taken in the spring; all these 
birds were taken close to Lakes Erie and Ontario—while at 
Toronto, one pair composed of a gray and red have been 
known to breed, which necessitates considering the red phase . 
in Ontario. MclInraith states that the species is migratory 
there, to a certain extent, and it is probable that some of the 
red birds may be chance visitors that have come north with 
others. With this exception the gray belt is unbroken from 
Picton, Nova Scotia, through New Brunswick; northern 
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York; the south- 
ern part of Quebec and Ontario; northern Michigan and Wis- 
consin; a strip through central Minnesota, thence south-west- 
ward across, Dakota and most of Nebraska, and ending 
in a long point near Leavenworth, Kansas. On the south 
this gray belt is somewhat broken as shown on map 2; in the 
‘uture more complete data may show it as unbroken here from 
east to west as it is on the north. Beginning at a point near 
St. Augustine, in Florida, it encompasses nearly the whole of 
that state and much of the range of the Florida form, Megascops 
a. floridanus; runs northward and westward to Eufaula in 
