Part 17

b. No conspicuous patch of white on the jugulum, which, with the lining of the wing, is distinctly barred with blackish. Wing, 12.00; tail, 7.50; culmen, 1.00; tarsus, 2.10; middle toe, 1.85.

Colors much as in var. virginianus, but more densely barred beneath, the dark bars narrower and closer together. Hab. South America …

var. magellanicus.

2. =B. mexicanus.= Lower parts longitudinally striped with black, and without transverse bars. Above with longitudinal stripes on the anterior portions. Wing, 11.20–12.00; tail, 6.00–6.50; culmen, .90; tarsus, 2.00; middle toe, 1.95. Hab. Middle and South America generally.

SUBGENUS NYCTEA, STEPHENS.

Nyctea, STEPHENS, Cont. Shaw’s Zoöl. XIII, 62, 1826. (Type Strix nyctea, LINN. N. Scandiaca, LINN.).

Species and Races.

1. =N. scandiaca.= Adult. Color pure white, more or less barred transversely with clear dusky, or brownish-black. Male sometimes almost pure white. Downy young, sooty slate-color. Wing, 16.00–18.00; tail, 9.00–10.00.

Dusky bars sparse, narrow, umber-brown. Hab. Northern parts of Palæarctic Realm …

var. scandiaca.

Dusky bars more numerous, broader, and clear brownish-black. Hab. Northern parts of Nearctic Realm …

var. arctica.

Bubo virginianus, var. virginianus, BONAP.

GREAT HORNED OWL.

Asio bubo virginianus, BRISS. Orn. I, 484, 17, 1760. Strix virginiana, GMEL. Syst. Nat. I, 287, 1788.—LATH. Ind. Orn. p. 52; Syn. I, 119; Supp. I, 40; Gen. Hist. I, 304.—DAUD. Tr. Orn. II, 210, pl. xiii.—WILS. Am. Orn. pl. l, f. 1.—BONAP. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. II, 37 and 435; Isis, 1832, p. 1139.—AUD. Birds Am. pl. lxi, 1831; Orn. Biog. I, 313.—THOMPS. Nat. Hist. Vermont, pl. lxv.—PEAB. Birds Mass. p. 87. Bubo virginianus, BONAP. List, p. 6, 1838; Consp. Av. p. 48.—JARD. (WILS.) Am. Orn. II, p. 257.—DE KAY, Zoöl. N. Y. II, 24, pl. x, f. 2.—NUTT. Man. Orn. p. 124.—MAX. Cab. Jour. 1853, VI, 23.—KAUP, Tr. Zoöl. Soc. IV, 1859, 241.—COUES, Key, 1872, 202. Bubo virginianus atlanticus, CASSIN, Birds of Cal. & Tex. I, 178, 1854.—Birds N. Am. 1858, 49 (under B. virginianus). Otus virginianus, STEPH. Zoöl. XIII, ii, 57, 1836. Ulula virginiana, JAMES. (WILS.), Am. Orn. I, 100, 1831. Strix virginiana, α, LATH. Gen. Hist. I, 306, 1821. Strix bubo, δ, LATH. Ind. Orn. p. 52, 1790.—SHAW, Zoöl. VII, 215. Strix maximus, BART. Trav. Carol. p. 285, 1792. Bubo ludovicianus, DAUD. Tr. Orn. II, 210, 1800. Bubo pinicola, VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept. pl. xix, 1807; Enc. Méth. p. 1282.

Bubo virginianus.]

SP. CHAR. Adult ♂ (12,057, Philadelphia; C. Drexler). Bases of all the feathers yellowish-rufous, this partially exposed on the head above and nape, along the scapulars, on the rump, and sides of the breast. On the upper surface this is overlaid by a rather coarse transverse mottling of brownish-black upon a white ground, the former rather predominating, particularly on the head and neck, where it forms broad ragged longitudinal stripes (almost obliterating the transverse bars), becoming prevalent, or blended, anteriorly. The lower feathers of the scapulars, and some of the lower feathers of the middle and secondary wing-coverts, with inconspicuous transverse spots of white. On the secondaries the mottling is finer, giving a grayish aspect, and crossed with eight sharply defined, but inconspicuous, bands of mottled dusky; primary coverts with the ground-color very dark, and crossed with three or four bands of plain blackish, the last terminal, though fainter than the rest; ground-color of the primaries more yellowish, the mottling more delicate; they are crossed by nine transverse series of quadrate dusky spots. The ground-color of the tail is pale ochraceous (transversely mottled with dusky), becoming white at the tip, crossed by seven bands of mottled blackish, these about equalling the light bands in width; on the middle feathers the bands are broken and confused, running obliquely, or, in places, longitudinally. Outer webs of ear-tufts pure black; inner webs almost wholly ochraceous; eyebrows and lores white, the feathers with black shafts; face dingy rufous; eye very narrowly encircled with whitish; a crescent of black bordering the upper eyelid, and confluent with the black of the ear-tufts. Facial circle continuous black, except across the foreneck; chin, throat, and jugulum pure immaculate white, to the roots of the feathers. Beneath, white prevails, but the yellowish-rufous is prevalent on the sides of the breast, and shows as the base color wherever the feathers are disarranged. The sides of the breast, sides, and flanks have numerous sharply defined narrow transverse bars of brownish-black; anteriorly these are finer and more ragged, becoming coalesced so as to form conspicuous, somewhat longitudinal, black spots. On the lower tail-coverts the bars are distant, though not less sharply defined. The abdomen medially is scarcely maculate white. Legs and toes plain ochraceous-white.

Bubo virginianus.]

Wing-formula, 2, 3–4–1, 5. Wing, 14.50; tail, 8.20; culmen, 1.10; tarsus, 2.00; middle toe, 2.00.

♀ (12,065, Maryland; R. J. Pollard). General appearance same as the male. Black blotches on head above and nape less conspicuous, the surface being mottled like the back, etc.; primary coverts with three well-defined narrow pure black bands; primaries with only six bands, these broader than in the male; secondaries with only five bands; tail with but six dark bands, these very much narrower than the light ones. Tibiæ and tarsi with sparse transverse bars of dusky. Wing-formula, 3, 2, 4–1=5. Wing, 16.00; tail, 9.00; culmen, 1.20; tarsus, 2.20; middle toe, 2.10.

Young. Wings and tail as in adult. Downy plumage of head and body ochraceous, with detached, rather distant, transverse bars of dusky. (12,062, Washington, D. C., May 20, 1859; C. Drexler.)

HAB. Eastern North America, south of Labrador; west to the Missouri; south through Atlantic region of Mexico to Costa Rica; Jamaica (GOSSE).

Localities: (?) Oaxaca (SCL. 1859, 390; possibly var. arcticus); Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I. 222); Jamaica (GOSSE, 23); Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 330, breeds); Costa Rica (LAWR. IX, 132).

Specimens from the regions indicated vary but little, the only two possessing differences of any note being one (58,747, ♂) from Southern Illinois, and one (33,218, San Jose; J. Carmiol) from Costa Rica. The first differs from all those from the eastern United States in much deeper and darker shades of color, the rufous predominant below, the legs and crissum being of quite a deep shade of this color; the transverse bars beneath are also very broad and pure black. This specimen is more like Audubon’s figure than any other, and may possibly represent the peculiar style of the Lower Mississippi region. The Costa Rica bird is remarkable for the predominance of the rufous on all parts of the plumage; the legs, however, are whitish, as in specimens from the Atlantic coast of the United States. These specimens cannot, however, be considered as anything else than merely local styles of the virginianus, var. virginianus.

Bubo virginianus, var. arcticus, SWAINS.

WESTERN GREAT HORNED OWL.

? Strix wapacuthu, GMEL. Syst. Nat. 1789, p. 290. Strix (Bubo) arctica, SWAINS. F. B. A. II, 1831, 86. Heliaptex arcticus, SWAINS. Classif. Birds, I, 1837, 328; IB. II, 217. Bubo virginianus arcticus, CASS. Birds N. Am. 1858, 50 (B. virginianus).—BLAKISTON, Ibis, III, 1861, 320. Bubo virginianus, var. arcticus, COUES, Key, 1872, 202. Bubo subarcticus, HOY, P. A. N. S. VI, 1852, 211. Bubo virginianus pacificus, CASS. Birds Cal. & Tex. 1854, and Birds N. Am. 1858 (B. virginianus, in part only). Bubo magellanicus, CASS. Birds Cal. & Tex. 1854, 178 (not B. magellanicus of LESSON!). Bubo virginianus, HEERM. 34.—KENNERLY, 20.—COUES, Prod. (P. A. N. S. 1866, 13).—BLAKISTON, Ibis, III, 1861, 320. ? Wapacuthu Owl, PENNANT, Arctic Zoöl. 231.—LATH. Syn. Supp. I, 49.

CHAR. Pattern of coloration precisely like that of var. virginianus, but the general aspect much lighter and more grayish, caused by a greater prevalence of the lighter tints, and contraction of dark pencillings. The ochraceous much lighter and less rufous. Face soiled white, instead of deep dingy rufous.