RAPTORES. 



105 



States, and is of rare occurrence in the vicinity of Philadelphia. On 

 the Pacific coast, it is one of numerous species that venture much 

 farther north than on the coast of the Atlantic. 



3. Strix delicatula, Gould. 



Strix delicatula, GoULD, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1836, p. 140. 



Strix lulu, Peale, Zoology, U. S. Exp. Exp. Birds, p. 71 (1st edition, 1848).* 



Gould, B. of Aust. I, Plate XXXI. 



This species, which is another of those that considerably resemble 

 Strix fiammea of Europe, and Strix imitincola of North America, M^as 

 observed principally in the Samoan Islands. It is, however, one of 

 the best-defined and easily recognized of the closely allied species 

 alluded to, and is beautifully represented in Mr. Gould's Birds of Aus- 

 tralia, as above cited. 



This bird may be readily distinguished by its light-gray color, singu- 

 larly uniform for a species of this group, in all the specimens now 

 before us, including several brought by the Expedition and the origi- 

 nal specimens from Mr. Gould's collection, now in the Museum of the 

 Philadelphia Academy. According to the naturalists of the Expedi- 

 tion, it is called Lula by the inhabitants of Samoa. 



Mr. Peale's observations on this bird are as follows : 



* " Like the foregoing (^Strix americana, And.), but smaller, lighter colored, and 

 having shorter wings. Top of the head, neck, back, upper surface of the wings, and tail 

 light-gray, mottled with pale-brown, and having a slight tinge of tawny ; the tip of 

 each feather of the dorsal plumage having a black spot with a white centre ; tail consist- 

 ing of twelve feathers, each with four brown bars, three only of which show on the under 

 surface ; wings barred like the tail ; throat, breast, belly, thighs, and all the under parts, 

 including the wings and tail, white; a few small black spots scattered over the under 

 wing-coverts, breast, and flanks ; plumage of the thighs and tarsi pure-white, and not so 

 full nor descending as low as in the American species ; irides dark-brown ; bill and legs 

 pale flesh-color; the latter covered with brown scales. 



" Total length twelve and three-fourths inches ; extent of wings thirty-four and one- 

 fourth inches; wing, from the carpal joint, eleven and four-tenths inches; tail four and 

 three-tenths inches; tarsi two and one-fourth inches ; middle toe, including the nail, one 

 and nineteen-twentieths inches; nail seven-tenths of an inch ; hind toe, including the 

 nail, one and four-tenths inches; nail seven-tenths of an inch. Female." 



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