A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 3. Robert Ridgway
Races of S. flammea
S. flammea. Face varying from pure white to delicate claret-brown; facial circle varying from pure white, through ochraceous and rufous, to deep black. Upper parts with the feathers ochraceous-yellow basally; this overlaid, more or less continuously, by a grayish wash, usually finely mottled and speckled, with dusky and white. Primaries and tail barred transversely, more or less distinctly, with distant dusky bands, of variable number. Beneath, varying from pure snowy white to tawny rufous, immaculate or speckled. Wing, 10.70–13.50.
Wing, 10.70–12.00; tail, 4.80–5.50; culmen, .75–.80; tarsus, 2.05–2.15; middle toe, 1.25–1.30. Tail with four dark bands, and sometimes a trace of a fifth. Hab. Europe and Mediterranean region of Africa … var. flammea.13
Wing, 12.50–14.00; tail, 5.70–7.50; culmen, .90–1.00; tarsus, 2.55–3.00. Tail with four dark bands, and sometimes a trace of a fifth. Colors lighter than in var. flammea. Hab. Southern North America and Mexico … var. pratincola.
Wing, 11.30–13.00; tail, 5.30–5.90; tarsus, 2.55–2.95. Colors of var. flammea, but more uniform above and more coarsely speckled below. Hab. Central America, from Panama to Guatemala … var. guatemalæ.14
Wing, 11.70–12.00; tail, 4.80–5.20; tarsus, 2.40–2.75. Tail more even, and lighter colored; the dark bars narrower, and more sharply defined. Colors generally paler, and more grayish. Hab. South America (Brazil, etc.) … var. perlata.15
Wing, 12.00–13.50; tail, 5.60–6.00; culmen, .85–.95; tarsus, 2.70–2.85; middle toe, 1.45–1.60. Colors as in var. perlata, but secondaries and tail nearly white, in abrupt contrast to the adjacent parts; tail usually without bars. Hab. West Indies (Cuba and Jamaica, Mus. S. I.) … var. furcata.16
Wing, 11.00; tail, 5.00; culmen, about .85; tarsus, 2.05–2.45; middle toe, 1.30–1.40. Colors of var. pratincola, but less of the ochraceous, with a greater prevalence of the gray mottling. Tail with four dark bands Hab. Australia … var. delicatula.17
Wing, 11.00–11.70; tail, 5.10–5.40; culmen, .85–.90; tarsus, 2.30–2.45; middle toe, 1.35–1.45. Same colors as var. delicatula. Tail with four dark bands (sometimes a trace of a fifth). Hab. India and Eastern Africa … var. javanica.18
Strix pratincola, Bonap. List, 1838, p. 7.—De Kay, Zoöl. N. Y. II, 1844, 31, pl. xiii. f. 28.—Gray, Gen. B., fol. sp. 2.—Cassin, B. Cal. & Tex. 1854, p. 176.—Newb. P. R. Rep. VI, iv, 1857, 76.—Heerm. do. VII, 1857, 34.—Cass. Birds N. Am. 1858, 47.—Coues, Prod. Orn. Ariz. (P. A. N. S. Philad. 1866), 13.—Scl. P. Z. S. 1859, 390 (Oaxaca).—Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 330 (Texas).—? Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1867, 65 (Bahamas). Strix perlata, Gray, List Birds Brit. Mus. 1848, 109 (not S. perlata of Licht. !).—Ib. Hand List, I, 1869, 52.—Kaup, Monog. Strig. Pr. Zoöl. Soc. Lond. IV, 1859, 247. Strix americana, Aud. Synop. 1839, 24.—Brewer, Wilson’s Am. Orn. 1852, 687. Strix flammea, Max. Reise Bras. II, 1820, 265.—Wils. Am. Orn. 1808, pl. l, f. 2.—James, ed. Wilson’s Am. Orn. I, 1831, 111.—Aud. B. Am. 1831, pl. clxxi.—Ib. Orn. Biog. II, 1831, 403.—Spix, Av. Bras. I, 21.—Vig. Zoöl. Jour. III, 438.—Ib. Zoöl. Beech. Voy. p. 16.—Bonap. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. II, 38.—Ib. Isis, 1832, 1140; Consp. Av. p. 55.—Gray, List Birds Brit. Mus. 1844, 54.—Nutt. Man. 1833, 139. Ulula flammea, Jardine, ed. Wilson’s Am. Orn. II, 1832, 264. Strix flammea, var. americana, Coues, Key, 1872, 201.
Char. Average plumage. Ground-color of the upper parts bright orange-ochraceous; this overlaid in cloudings, on nearly the whole of the surface, with a delicate mottling of blackish and white; the mottling continuous on the back and inner scapulars, and on the ends of the primaries more faint, while along their edges it is more in the form of fine dusky dots, thickly sprinkled. Each feather of the mottled surface (excepting the secondaries and primaries) has a medial dash of black, enclosing a roundish or cordate spot of white near the end of the feather; on the secondaries and primaries, the mottling is condensed into obsolete transverse bands, which are about four in number on the former and five on the latter; primary coverts deeper orange-rufous than the other portions, the mottling principally at their ends. Tail orange-ochraceous, finely mottled—most densely terminally—with dusky, fading into whitish at the tip, and crossed by about five distinct bands of mottled dusky. Face white, tinged with wine-red; an ante-orbital spot of dark claret-brown, this narrowly surrounding the eye; facial circle, from forehead down to the ears (behind which it is white for an inch or so) soft orange-ochraceous, similar to the ground-color of the upper parts; the lower half (from ears across the throat) deeper ochraceous, the tips of the feathers blackish, the latter sometimes predominating. Lower parts snowy-white, but this more or less overlaid with a tinge of fine orange-ochraceous, lighter than the tint of the upper parts; and, excepting on the jugulum, anal region, and crissum, with numerous minute but distinct specks of black; under surface of wings delicate yellowish-white, the lining sparsely sprinkled with black dots; inner webs of primaries with transverse bars of mottled dusky near their ends.
Extreme plumages. Darkest (No. 6,884, ♂, Tejon Valley, Cal.; “R. S. W.” Dr. Heermann): There is no white whatever on the plumage, the lower parts being continuous light ochraceous; the tibiæ have numerous round spots of blackish. Lightest (No. 6,885, same locality): Face and entire lower parts immaculate snowy-white; facial circle white, with the tips of the feathers orange; the secondaries, primaries, and tail show no bars, their surface being uniformly and finely mottled.
Measurements (♂, 6,884, Tejon Valley, Cal.; Dr. Heermann). Wing, 13.00; tail, 5.70; culmen, .90; tarsus, 2.50; middle toe, 1.25. Wing-formula, 2, 1–3. Among the very numerous specimens in the collection, there is not one marked ♀. The extremes of a large series are as follows: Wing, 12.50–14.00; tail, 5.70–7.50; culmen, .90–1.10; tarsus, 2.55–3.00.
Hab. More southern portions of North America, especially near the sea-coast, from the Middle States southward, and along the southern border to California; whole of Mexico. In Central America appreciably modified into var. guatemalæ. In South America replaced by var. perlata, and in the West Indies by the quite different var. furcata.
Localities: Oaxaca (Scl. P. Z. S. 1859, 390); Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 330); Arizona (Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 49); ? Bahamas (Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1867, 65). Kansas (Snow, List of B. Kansas); Iowa (Allen, Iowa Geol. Report, II, 424).
6885 ½ nat. size.
Strix pratincola.
The variations of plumage noted above appear to be of a purely individual nature, since they do not depend upon the locality; nor, as far as we can learn, to any considerable extent, upon age or sex.
Habits. On the Atlantic coast this bird very rarely occurs north of Pennsylvania. It is given by Mr. Lawrence as very rare in the vicinity of New York, and in three instances, at least, it has been detected in New England. An individual is said, by Rev. J. H. Linsley, to have been taken in 1843, in Stratford, Conn.; another was shot at Sachem’s Head in the same State, October 28, 1865; and a third was killed in May, 1868, near Springfield, Mass.
In the vicinity of Philadelphia the Barn Owl is not very rare, but is more common in spring and autumn than in the summer. Its nests have been found in hollow trees near marshy meadows. Southward it is more or less common as far as South Carolina, where it becomes more abundant, and its range then extends south and west as far as the Pacific. It is quite plentiful in Texas and New Mexico, and is one of the most abundant birds of California. It was not met with by Dr. Woodhouse in the expedition to the Zuñi River, but this may be attributed to the desolate character of the country through which he passed, as it is chiefly
No. 24,283, Nicaragua, (Captain J. M. Dow,) is like the specimen just described, in the uniform dark wash of the upper parts, but this is deeper; the lower parts, however, are quite different, being ochraceous-orange, instead of pure white.
The remaining five specimens (from San Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua) are alike, and differ from northern birds in the deeper dark mottling of the upper parts; the white specks very conspicuous, and usually sagittate. The facial circle deep black where it crosses the foreneck. The lower parts vary in color from nearly pure white to deep orange-rufous; the dark markings of the lower surface are larger, more angular, and more transverse than in true
This is a still further differentiated or more appreciably modified race. It differs in smaller size (wing, 11.70–12.50; tail, 4.80–5.20; tarsus, 2.40–2.75) and more square tail, while the colors also present constant differences. The tail is much lighter compared with the wings, the bands narrower and more sharply defined, though the same in number.
This form is the most distinctly characterized of all the races of
All the American races of
I have been unable to find any description of this form, and believe it to be unnamed. It is certainly not the