BY NATHAN CLIFFORD BROWN.
Peucæa ruficeps eremœca.[[10]] General aspect dull gray. Dorsal region grayish-ash, the feathers brownish centrally and with their shafts almost black. Top of head rufous, much admixed with grayish. A black frontlet, divided at the culmen by a white line, as in ruficeps and var. boucardi. Breast and sides clear gray. Abdomen whitish. Crissum and flanks tinged with fulvous. A black maxillary stripe. Length of fresh specimen, 6.25; extent, 8.62; wing and tail about 2.75. Sexes alike.
The above description characterizes a bird very unlike Peucæa ruficeps both in size and in coloration. It is much larger and entirely lacks the peculiar rufous tint of the upper parts seen in P. ruficeps. Var. boucardi, which is simply a larger race of ruficeps, the present form therefore resembles only in size and in the distribution of its markings. Indeed it is so unlike both described races that, but for thorough investigations by Mr. Robert Ridgway which fail to justify such a procedure, I should urge the claims of the new form to specific rank. Mr. Ridgway has with great kindness made a careful comparison of several of my specimens with all accessible material bearing upon the matter, and writes me that he finds the former insufficiently differentiated from ruficeps, through boucardi, to stand as a species. An interesting fact, incidentally brought to light by Mr. Ridgway, is that of the few Mexican examples upon which Dr. Sclater based his Zonotrichia boucardi, those from Orizaba are apparently referable to the race I have named eremœca. The National Museum possesses one of the three original Orizaba skins.
The specimens above described were taken, during the months of Dec., 1879 and Jan., Feb., and March, 1880, at Boerne, Kendall Co., Texas. Some account of their habits may be found on another page of the present number of the Bulletin.
ON KENNICOTT’S OWL AND SOME OF ITS ALLIES, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF A PROPOSED NEW RACE.
BY WILLIAM BREWSTER.
Since the date of its first description in 1867, Kennicott’s Owl (Scops asio kennicotti) has remained a very rare bird, and ornithologists have gained but little additional knowledge regarding either its distribution or variations of color. The prominent characters of Elliot’s type were its large size and tawny or umber-brown plumage, and as the few specimens subsequently recognized have closely resembled it, this peculiar coloring has come to be regarded as constant and diagnostic. But not long since Capt. Bendire sent me a Screech Owl from Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory, which, although equaling kennicotti in size and resembling it in some other respects, was colored more nearly like S. asio in its gray dress. Being unable to reconcile the peculiarities of this bird with any of the standard descriptions, I set to work, at Capt. Bendire’s request, to bring together a sufficiently large number of specimens to determine its identity or relationship. In this I have at length succeeded, thanks to the kind assistance of Professor Baird and Mr. Ridgway of the National Museum, Mr. Allen of the Cambridge Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, Capt. Charles Bendire, U. S. A., Mr. H. W. Henshaw, Mr. Purdie and several other friends, all of whom have been most generous in placing their material at my disposal.
The series now before me comprises about fifty specimens, and includes representatives of all the known North American forms of Scops except S. flammeolus. Among the number are two typical kennicotti, a fine suite of asio, illustrating its numerous variations of plumage, and no less than nine examples referable to the large gray form already mentioned as coming from Fort Walla Walla. A comparison of the latter with asio and kennicotti shows that while a few of the grayer specimens bear a strong superficial resemblance to asio in its corresponding condition, the evidence of the series as a whole points to a stronger affinity with kennicotti. In regard to size, they are fully up to the standard of the latter, the difference from asio in this respect being so decided that the smallest male of the series is considerably larger than any female which I have from the East. Moreover, the purely gray style is represented by only a small proportion of the number, the majority being more or less tinged with tawny-rufous, in this as well as some other respects indicating evident approaches to the supposed typical characteristics of kennicotti. In short, the intermediate character of several of these specimens is so unmistakable that, although the transition is not completely shown, they furnish ample evidence that the gray form actually does intergrade with brown kennicotti.
The bearing of this testimony is not doubtful. Geographical considerations preclude our regarding the two birds as allied races, for one of the most typical examples of kennicotti comes from Idaho (No. 59,068 Coll. Nat. Mus., Dr. Whitehead), while I have a specimen referable to the gray condition from the coast of Oregon (Portland, Capt. Bendire), thus showing that they cannot be assigned different habitats. Clearly, then, the only alternative remaining is the assumption that kennicotti, like asio, is dichromatic, the purely gray birds from Fort Walla Walla representing the extreme of one phase, as the tawny brown type probably does that of the other. And considered in connection with its bearing on similarly variable allied forms, the hypothesis of dichromatism certainly offers a very easy and natural way out of the difficulty. Nor is there anything inconsistent in the fact that one or the other style apparently predominates in many sections of their mutual range, and in some is perhaps the exclusive representative, for a similar state of affairs is well known to obtain with other dichromatic members of this genus.[[11]]
Assuming the preceding conclusions to be granted, the gray condition of kennicotti may be characterized as follows:—