648 The American Naturalist. [July, 
There are at least three places on the map where this simi- 
larity of distribution 1s wanting, as, for example, the decidu- 
ous region extending from central New York southwestward 
through Ohio and northern Indiana, where gray birds pre- 
dominate, also the territory along the Atlantic coast most decid- 
edly coniferous where red birds are found, and the western 
boundary of the species from north to south, where little or no 
timber occurs, and when found is mostly deciduous, and where 
gray is the predominating color. With these exceptions the 
similarity is remarkable, whilethe discrepancies are in a meas- 
ure compensated for by the hygrometric conditions existing in 
the localities mentioned. 
CONCLUSIONS. 
From the foregoing it is evident that the red phase is con- 
fined mainly to Megascops asio (I am speaking of it as a whole), 
which, on its northern border, merges into the gray phase; 
that the southern gray belt incompasses floridanus, while in 
eastern Texas the few red specimens of mecallii that are known 
have been taken from the extreme north-eastern portion of its 
range, which is influenced both by humidity and temperature 
(see maps). Again this distribution of color corresponds very 
closely to the life areas—the gray phase of the Florida form in 
the South occupying a major portion of the Austroriparian ; 
the red phase of asio proper conforming very closely to even 
the outlines of the Carolinian, while the gray phase is equally 
identical with the Alleghanian. 
It is worthy of note that the gray phase of Megascops asio is 
boreal in its affinities, and that where a gray phase of asio is 
found that is not boreal, it is recognized as a subspecies. 
Now if floridanus (gray) is separable from asio just north of 
it (red), it seems highly probable that asio (red) will some day 
be separated from the gray phase on the north. It has been 
shown that as regards the two phases of asio, certain areas are 
inhabited exclusively by reds, certain ones exclusively by 
grays, while still others are inhabited by a mixture of the two, 
-and that three forms (floridanus and two color phases of asio 
proper) inhabit, as a whole, entirely distinct areas. No one : | 
