x 54 
Stone, North American Horned Owls. 
r Auk 
L April 
following data in the hand of John Cassin : “ Bubo subarcticus 
Hoy, Racine, Wisconsin. Original specimen described by Dr. 
Hoy and presented by him 1853. J. C.” The description is in 
the ‘ Proceedings ’ of the Academy for 1852, p. 21 1, and evidently 
refers to the specimen in question. 
This specimen at once struck me as being much lighter in color 
than any examples of subarcticus that I had examined ; in fact it 
seemed nearer to the description of ardicus as given in the books. 
Not having any specimens of undoubted ardicus for comparison, 
and the figure of this form in ‘ Fauna Boreali- Americana ’ being 
still lighter than the specimen in hand, I let the matter stand 
until I had an opportunity to make direct comparison. 
Recently I showed the specimen to Mr. Leverett M. Loomis, 
who agreed with me that it must be very close to ardicus. A few 
days later, while together in Washington, we examined specimens 
of ardicus in the National Museum Collection and concluded that 
the type of subarcticus was identical with them. 
To make matters sure, however, I sent the type specimen to 
Mr. Robert Ridgway, on my return to Philadelphia, and after 
making a careful comparison, he writes me : “ The bird is un- 
Auk, XIII, April, 1890, p j>. J , 
A REVISION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN HORNED 
OWLS WITH DESCRIPTION OF A 
NEW SUBSPECIES. 
BY WITMER STONE. 
It is not a pleasant task to overthrow a scientific name long in 
use, but under certain circumstances it seems unavoidable, and 
the case of Bubo virginianus subarcticus (Hoy) is an instance of 
this kind. 
Some years ago while engaged in cataloguing the Owls in the 
collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia I 
found the type specimen of “ Bubo subarcticus Hoy.” The bird 
was mounted, and on the under side of the stand were written the 
