Though this genus is cosmopolitan, the species are few in number; two of them (O. vulgaris and O. brachyotus) are common to both North America and Europe, one of them (the latter) found also in nearly every country in the world. Besides these, South Africa has a peculiar species (O. capensis) while Tropical America alone possesses the O. stygius.
? Strix peregrinator (?), Bart. Trav. 1792, p. 285.—Cass. B. Cal. & Tex. 1854, 196. Asio peregrinator, Strickl. Orn. Syn. I, 1855, 207. Otus wilsonianus, Less. Tr. Orn. 1831, 110.—Gray, Gen. fol. sp. 2, 1844.—Ib. List Birds Brit. Mus. p. 105.—Cass. Birds Cal. & Tex. 1854, 81.—Ib. Birds N. Am. 1858, 53.—Coop. & Suck. 1860, 155.—Coues, Prod. 1866, 14. Otus americanus, Bonap. List, 1838, p. 7.—Ib. Consp. p. 50.—Wederb. & Tristr. Cont. Orn. 1849, p. 81.—Kaup, Monog. Strig. Cont. Orn. 1852, 113.—Ib. Trans. Zoöl. Soc. IV, 1859, 233.—Max. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 25.—Gray, Hand List, I, 1869, No. 540, p. 50. Strix otus, Wils. Am. Orn. 1808, pl. li, f. 1.—Rich. & Sw. F. B. A. II, 72.—Bonap. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. II, 37.—Ib. Isis, 1832, 1140.—Aud. Orn. Biog. IV, 572.—Ib. Birds Am. pl. ccclxxxiii.—Peab. Birds, Mass. 88. Ulula otus, Jard. ed. Wils. Am. Orn. I, 1831, 104.—Brewer, ed. Wils. Am. Orn. Synop. p. 687.—Nutt. Man. 130. Otus vulgaris (not of Fleming!), Jardine, ed. Wils. Am. Orn. 1832, II, 278.—Aud. Synop. 1831, 28.—Giraud, Birds Long Island, p. 25. Otus vulgaris, var. wilsonianus (Ridgway), Coues, Key, 1872, 204. Bubo asio, De Kay, Zoöl. N. Y. II, 25, pl. xii, f. 25.
Sp. Char. Adult. Upper surface transversely mottled with blackish-brown and grayish-white, the former predominating, especially on the dorsal region; feathers of the nape and wings (only), ochraceous beneath the surface, lower scapulars with a few obsolete spots of white on lower webs. Primary coverts dusky, with transverse series of dark mottled grayish spots, these becoming somewhat ochraceous basally; ground-color of the primaries grayish, this especially prevalent on the inner quills; the basal third (or less) of all are ochraceous, this decreasing in extent on inner feathers; the grayish tint is everywhere finely mottled transversely with dusky, but the ochraceous is plain; primaries crossed by a series of about seven quadrate blackish-brown spots, these anteriorly about as wide as the intervening yellowish or mottled grayish; the interval between the primary coverts to the first of these spots is about .80 to 1.00 inch on the fourth quill,—the spots on the inner and outer feathers approaching the coverts, or even underlying them; the inner primaries—or, in fact, the general exposed grayish surface—has much narrower bars of dusky. Ground-color of the wings like the back, this growing paler on the outer feathers, and becoming ochraceous basally; the tip approaching whitish; secondaries crossed by nine or ten narrow bands of dusky.
Ear-tufts, with the lateral portion of each web, ochraceous; this becoming white, somewhat variegated with black, toward the end of the inner webs, on which the ochraceous is broadest; medial portion clear, unvariegated black. Forehead and post-auricular disk minutely speckled with blackish and white; facial circle continuous brownish-black, becoming broken into a variegated collar across the throat. “Eyebrows” and lores grayish-white; eye surrounded with blackish, this broadest anteriorly above and below, the posterior half being like the ear-coverts. Face plain ochraceous; chin and upper part of the throat immaculate white. Ground-color below pale ochraceous, the exposed surface of the feathers, however, white; breast with broad longitudinal blotches of clear dark brown, these medial, on the feathers; sides and flanks, each feather with a medial stripe, crossed by as broad, or broader, transverse bars, of blackish-brown; abdomen, tibial plumes, and legs plain ochraceous, becoming nearly white on the lower part of tarsus and on the toes; tibial plumes with a few sagittate marks of brownish; lower tail-coverts each having a medial sagittate mark of dusky, this continuing along the shaft, forking toward the base. Lining of the wing plain pale ochraceous; inner primary coverts blackish-brown, forming a conspicuous spot.
38256 ½ ½
Otus wilsonianus.
♂ (51,227, Carlisle, Penn.; S. F. Baird). Wing formula, 2, 3–1, 4, etc. Wing, 11.50; tail, 6.20; culmen, .65; tarsus, 1.20; middle toe, 1.15.
♀ (2,362, Professor Baird’s collection, Carlisle, Penn.). Wing formula, 2, 3–4–1. Wing, 12.00; tail, 6.00; culmen, .65; tarsus, 1.25; middle toe, 1.15.
Young (49,568, Sacramento, Cal., June 21, 1867; Clarence King, Robert Ridgway). Wings and tail as in the adult; other portions transversely banded with blackish-brown and grayish-white, the latter prevailing anteriorly; eyebrows and loral bristles entirely black; legs white.
Hab. Whole of temperate North America? Tobago? (Jardine).
Localities: Tobago (Jardine, Ann. Mag. 18, 116); Arizona (Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 50).
The American Long-eared Owl is quite different in coloration from the Otus vulgaris of Europe. In the latter, ochraceous prevails over the whole surface, even above, where the transverse dusky mottling does not approach the uniformity that it does in the American bird; in the European bird, each feather above has a conspicuous medial longitudinal stripe of dark brownish: these markings are found everywhere except on the rump and upper tail-coverts, where the ochraceous is deepest, and transversely clouded with dusky mottling; in the American bird, no longitudinal stripes are visible on the upper surface. The ochraceous of the lower surface is, in the vulgaris, varied only (to any considerable degree) by the sharply defined medial longitudinal stripes to the feathers, the transverse bars being few and inconspicuous; in wilsonianus, white overlies the ochraceous below, and the longitudinal are less conspicuous than the transverse markings; the former on the breast are broader than in vulgaris, in which, also, the ochraceous at the bases of the primaries occupies a greater extent. Comparing these very appreciable differences with the close resemblance of other representative styles of the two continents (differences founded on shade or depth of tints alone), we were almost inclined to recognize in the American Long-eared Owl a specific value to these discrepancies.
Otus vulgaris.
The Otus stygius, Wagl., of South America and Mexico, is entirely distinct, as will be seen from the foregoing synoptical table.
Habits. This species appears to be one of the most numerous of the Owls of North America, and to be pretty generally distributed. Its strictly nocturnal habits have caused it to be temporarily overlooked in localities where it is now known to be present and not rare. Dr. William Gambel and Dr. Heermann both omit it from their lists of the birds of California, though Dr. J. G. Cooper has since found it quite common. It was once supposed not to breed farther south than New Jersey, but it is now known to be resident in South Carolina and in Arizona, and is probably distributed through all the intervening country. Donald Gunn writes that to his knowledge this solitary bird hunts in the night, both summer and winter, in the Red River region. It there takes possession of the deserted nests of crows, and lays four white eggs. He found it as far as the shores of Hudson’s Bay. Richardson states it to be plentiful in the woods skirting the plains of the Saskatchewan, frequenting the coast of the bay in the summer, and retiring into the interior in the winter. He met with it as high as the 16th parallel of latitude, and believed it to occur as far as the forests extend.
Dr. Cooper met with this species on the banks of the Columbia, east of the Dalles. The region was desolate and barren, and several species of Owls appeared to have been drawn there by the abundance of hares and mice. Dr. Suckley also met with it on a branch of Milk River, in Nebraska. It has likewise been taken in different parts of California, in New Mexico, among the Rocky Mountains, in the valley of the Rio Grande, at Fort Benton, and at Cape Florida, in the last-named place by Mr. Würdemann.
Dr. Cooper found this Owl quite common near San Diego, and in March observed them sitting in pairs in the evergreen oaks, apparently not much troubled by the light. On the 27th of March he found a nest, probably that of a Crow, built in a low evergreen oak, in which a female Owl was sitting on five