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Analecta Ornithologies 
Leonard Stejneger 
XIII. On the systematic name of the American 
Hawk Owl. 
The aim of the present article is to show that the name Strix 
funerea Lin. is untenable for the American Hawk Owl, belong- 
ing properly to its continental European representative. Taking 
Linnaeus's ioth edition (1768) of his ‘Systems Naturalis’ for our 
nomenclatural starting point we find on p. 93 of that work (Vol. 
I) : 
“ Strix funerea. 
7. S. capite lasvi, corpore fusco, iridibus flavis. Fn. svec. 51 [1st ed. 
1746]. 
Ulula flammeata Frisch, av. t. 98? Habitat in Europa.” 
This quotation needs no further comment in order to point out 
that the name belongs to the European bird and not to the Ameri- 
can subspecies, and does not even include the latter. But not 
even those authors starting from the 12th edition (1766) are jus- 
tified in applying this term to the American bird. 
Two years after the publication of the 10th edition, Mr. Brisson, 
in his most admirable ‘Ornithologia’ (I, p. 518, 1760) described 
the latter as Strix canadensis . From his clear description Lin- 
naeus at once perceived that Strix canadensis was conspecific 
with his funerea. In the 12th edition, published six years after 
Brisson’s work, the text was therefore altered accordingly, and 
reads thus : 
‘ ‘ Strix funerea . 
S. capite lsevi, corpore fusco, iridibus flavis. Fn. svec. 75 [2d ed. 1761]. 
Strix canadensis Briss. av. I, ft., 518, t. 37 , f 2. 
Habitat in Europa et America seftentrionali 
That Linnaeus erroneously considered the American form abso- 
lutely identical with the one he had originally described as 
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occurring in Europe only, does not make the name applied first 
to the latter, and subsequently to both, available for the former 
only, and funerea can, therefore, by no means be employed for 
the American Hawk Owl, neither by the advocates of the ioth 
edition nor by those favoring that of 1766. 
It might from the above appear as if we were compelled then 
to us e. funerea for the European bird, but this is not necessarily 
the case. Linnaeus in both editions, on the same page, described 
the same species under another name, viz., Strix ulula , and 
there is every reason for retaining this name, which has been in 
general use of late by both the ioth and the 12th edition parties, 
and is especially commendable for the European bird, since Lin- 
meus himself never mixed it up with its relative on the other side 
of the Atlantic. 
The first binomial name for the American Hawk Owl will be 
found to be P. St. Muller’s Strix caparoch * (not caparacoch as 
quoted by some authors), published in 1779, consequently being 
nine years older than Gmelin’s Strix hudsonia. Both these 
names are based upon pi. 62 of Edward’s ‘Natural History,’ and 
consequently equally pertinent, and Buffon’s Caparacoch, quoted 
by both of them, is also founded upon the same plate and 
description. 
The immediate source of Muller’s account is Boddaert’s ‘Kort- 
begrip’ (p. 112, 1772), and the lapsus of the latter in writing 
“Caparoch” in place of ‘Caparacoch,’ and giving the habitat as 
Europe instead of North America, reappear in Muller’s transcrip- 
tion. 
The Hawk Owls of Mr. Ridgway’s ‘Nomenclature’ (p. 37) 
should, therefore, stand as : 
407a. Surnia ulula ( Linn ). Bp. European Hawk Owl. 
407. Surnia ulula caparoch {Mull.). American Hawk 
Owl. 
The name of the latter is atrociously barbarous, but, however, 
in that respect is not worse than many others ; and it will be found 
quite convenient, when we first have got used to it. It certainly 
is much more distinctive than funerea, and its sound is just as 
suggestive of the American habitat of its owner as would be 
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Strix caparoch P. St. Muller, Suppl. S. N. p. 69 (1779)* 
