3 2 Brewster on KennicoW s Owl and some of its Allies. 
Among the nine examples before me there is remarkably little 
individual variation, much less in fact than with any equal num- 
ber of asio which I have ever examined. The Alameda County 
specimens as a rule are rather more finely and faintly barred than 
the Nicasio ones and the ground-color beneath is of a slightly 
different shade, inclining more to clayey than ashy white. In one 
bird the under surface is decidedly dull clay-color, which is so 
generally and evenly distributed that there is positively no 
approach to clear white even on the throat, lores, forehead or ab- 
domen. But the essential characters already given are so well 
maintained on the whole that the description of the one chosen as „ 
the type will apply nearly as well to them all. This uniformity 
is doubtless largely owing to the absence in this race of any ten- 
dency to dichromatism, for much of the variation among the 
dichromatic ones can be traced to the combination in varying 
degrees of the colors of both phases, purely colored birds of either 
style being, at least in some sections, of comparatively rare occur- 
ence. It is of course to be expected that larger suites of speci- 
mens will furnish occasional aberrant ones some of which may 
approach asio; but, so far as the present material is concerned, 
the tendency of variation is rather towards kennicotti and “ tricop- 
sis.” Indeed, as will be seen by comparing my diagnoses, the 
general coloring and markings of bendirei are so nearly like those 
of kennicotti in its extreme gray phase, that were it not for their 
wide difference in size it might be difficult to separate some of the 
specimens. That bendirei grades into the larger bird at the 
point where their respective habitats meet is shown by a speci- 
men (No. 16,027, Nat. Mus.) from Fort Crook, Northern Cali- 
fornia, which is almost exactly intermediate in size, although 
more nearly like kennicotti in color and markings. As to our 
bird of the Southwest border, I believe that Mr. Ridgway is still 
undecided whether it really represents the tricopsis of Wagler or 
not, but he writes me that however this may turn out, he is now 
convinced that it intergrades with the form found over California 
at large and must hence be reduced to a variety of Scops asio. 
After a careful comparison of specimens I can unhesitatingly 
endorse this opinion, my Arizona examples of “ tricopsis ” differ- 
ing from some of the more faintly barred bendirei only in the 
purer ash and sharper streaking of their dorsal plumage. 
Save in cases where this fresh material has thrown new light 
