318 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
AIKEN SCREECH OWL: 6tus asio aikeni (Brewster) 
Description. — Wing: 6.5 inches, tail 3.8. Similar to the Mexican Screech 
Owl but larger, the upperparts more coarsely mottled or vermiculated and with 
blackish mesial streaks broader and more strongly contrasted with the general color; 
blackish pencilings of underparts heavier, rather less numerous (Ilidgway). 
Range. —Southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. 
State Records. —A male Aiken Screech Owl was taken by G. II. Gaut, Sep¬ 
tember 29, 1903, at the ruins of Gran Quivira, on Mesa Jumanes, showing that there 
are two forms of Otua asio in New Mexico. As aikeni is the breeding form of southern 
Colorado, it would naturally be the breeding form of northern New Mexico; cineras- 
cens from Mexico being naturally the breeding form of southern New Mexico. 
This apparently being the case, the records have been confused, those given as the 
southern Mexican form from northern New Mexico being attributable to the north- 
ern-Aiken-form. Of these we have records of eggs taken at Fort Wingate, April 18, 
1887 (Bendire); [a nest with nearly grown young in Santa Fe, May 15, 1921 (Jensen)]; 
young not long out of the nest seen near Taos Pueblo, July 14, 1904 (Bailey). And 
in the fall, September 15, 1903, noted as high as 8,800 feet in the Taos Mountains 
(Surber); [also noted in the winter of 1922-23, at 7,000 feet, Santa Fe (Jensen).] 
FLAMMULATED SCREECH OWL: Otus flammeolus flammeolus (Kaup) 
Description. — Length: 6.5-7 inches (Coues), wing 5.1-5.6, tail 2.6-3. Toes 
entirely naked , ear-tufts short. Dichromatic , having red and gray phases, the red ones 
being rich buff or orange-rufous where the gray ones are brown or gray, but the pecu¬ 
liar color-pattern holding the same in both forms. Adults: Facial disc> sometimes 
whole head , rusty brown , speckled with black, and top of head also with white, tending 
to form a white stripe over the eye; upperparts finely dappled with brown and gray, 
and marked with “ragged” dark shaft-stripes; shoulders with a conspicuous white or 
tawny bar; underparts white, heavily overlaid with black shaft streaks or blotches, 
and irregular cross lines; breast tinged urith rusty brown; tail with narrow “ragged” 
rusty or whitish cross bars; wing quills marked with white or buff; iris brown. Young: 
Plumage finely cross-barred, without longitudinal streaks. 
Range. —Transition Zone from southern British Columbia, Washington, and 
Idaho, south through western Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Cali¬ 
fornia, to highlands of Guatemala. 
State Records.’ —The rare Flammulated Screech Owl ranges from Colorado 
south to Mexico, hence it was to have been expected in New Mexico, but apparently 
it was not recorded for the State until Bergtold saw one October 3, 1906, in 
McKnight’s Canyon in the Mogollon Mountains. Two yearB later on July 20, 1908, 
a specimen was secured in the Big Hatchet Mountains (Birdseye), and the next year 
on October 19, Bergtold again noted it in the Mogollon Mountains, this time on 
Iron Creek at about 7,200 feet. [One was found at Reserve, September 29, 1927 
(H. H. Kimball); one collected May 8, 1920, at the north end of the Animas Moun¬ 
tains at 7,500 feet (Ligon).] The first eggs found in New Mexico were obtained in 
1913 on June 3, at Haut Creek, 30 miles west of Chloride at 7,000 feet. [Incubated 
eggs were found under a sitting bird in the Carson Forest, June 6, 1916 (Ligon).] 
So far most of the records for New Mexico come from the middle altitudes in the 
mountains of the southwestern part of the State, but since the species has been taken 
in the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas (Bailey) close to the New Mexico line and along 
the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, there is every reason to expect 
that eventually it will be found in the mountains of eastern and northeastern New 
Mexico. [In 1922, Jensen reported that a pair had nested for five years in the Indian 
School campus at Santa Fed—W. W. Cooke. 
