28 Brewster on Kennicotf s Owl and so?ne of its Allies. 
with kcnnicotti. In regard to size, they are fully up to the 
standard of the latter, the difference from asio in this respect 
being so decided that the smallest male of the series is consider- 
ably larger than any female which I have from the East. More- 
over, the purely gray style is represented by only a small propor- 
tion of the number, the majority being more or less tinged with 
tawny-rufous, in this as well as some other respects indicating 
evident approaches to the supposed typical characteristics of ken- 
nicotti. In short, the intermediate character of several of these 
specimens is so unmistakable that, although the transition is not 
completely shown, they furnish ample evidence that the gray form 
actually does intergrade with brown kennicotti. 
The bearing of this testimony is not doubtful. Geographical 
considerations preclude our regarding the two birds as allied races, 
for one of the most typical examples of kennicotti comes from 
Idaho (No. 59,068 Coll. Nat. Mus., Dr. Whitehead), while I have 
a specimen referable to the gray condition from the coast of Oregon 
(Portland, Capt. Bendire), thus showing that they cannot be as- 
signed different habitats. Clearly* then, the only alternative remain- 
ing is the assumption that kennicotti , like asio, is dichromatic, the 
purely gray birds from Fort Walla Walla representing the extreme 
of one phase, as the tawny brown type probably does that of the 
other. And considered in connection with its bearing on similarly 
variable allied forms, the hypothesis of dichromatism certainly 
offers a very easy and natural way out of the difficulty. Nor is 
there anything inconsistent in the fact that one or the other style 
apparently predominates in many sections of their mutual range, 
and in some is perhaps the exclusive representative, for a similar 
state of affairs is well known to obtain with other dichromatic 
members of this genus.* 
Assuming the preceding conclusions to be granted, the gray 
condition of kennicotti may be characterized as follows : — 
Scops asio kennicotti. Gray phase ; adult ( $ 5 no. 6456 author’s col- 
lection, Fort Walla Walla, W. T., October 22, 1881, Capt. Bendire). 
Ground-color above brownish-ash, darkest on the head, palest on the wings, 
with confused, often nearly obsolete transverse mottling and shaft-stripes 
of dull black, broadest and most numerous on the crown. Outer webs of 
scapulars and alula-coverts cream-color, the former tipped and narrowly 
* Mr. Ridgway has found that fully ninety-five per cent of the Screech Owls of the 
Wabash Valley, in southern Illinois, are red . 
