Scops asio kennicotti. Gray phase; adult (♀, no. 6456 author’s collection, Fort Walla Walla, W. T., October 22, 1881, Capt. Bendire). Ground-color above brownish-ash, darkest on the head, palest on the wings, with confused, often nearly obsolete transverse mottling and shaft-stripes of dull black, broadest and most numerous on the crown. Outer webs of scapulars and alula-coverts cream-color, the former tipped and narrowly margined with black. Secondaries and inner webs of primaries crossed by from six to seven bars of pale reddish-brown. Outer webs of primaries with broad, quadrate spots of brownish-white. Tail regularly but faintly barred with light reddish-brown. Feathers of the sides of head and neck thickly but minutely mottled with dusky upon a lighter ground. Lores nearly pure white. A somewhat broken facial-circle of black or chestnut spots and blotches. Beneath ashy-white, lightest on the abdomen, with numerous fine, regular, transverse bars of black and coarse shaft-stripes of the same color; the only immaculate space being that along the middle of the abdomen. Lining of wings and concealed silky plumage of sides under the wings, pale ochraceous. Tarsi, dull chestnut. Wing, 7.10; culmen, .61; tarsus, 1.77; tail, 4.10; middle toe, .75; ear-tufts, 1.45.
The above description is of a specimen representing the extreme grayish phase so far as shown by the series before me. Six others from the same locality vary a good deal in color and markings, some of them being very dark with coarse shaft-stripes, both above and below, while one or two have the dorsal surface nearly like that of asio in its corresponding condition. In all, however, the plumage of the under parts is somewhat different from that of asio, the transverse bars being usually much finer and more regular and the ground-color ashy instead of clear white. These differences seem to be most strongly marked in the purely gray specimens which otherwise afford the nearest approaches to asio.
Among the darker birds are three which may be considered as about intermediate between the extreme brown and gray phases. The first, from Mr. Henshaw’s collection (Fort Walla Walla, Nov. 7, 1880, Capt. Bendire) has the dorsal plumage dark brown with an umber cast, while the tibiæ, lining of wings, outer webs of scapulars, and numerous pairs of rounded spots forming a band or collar across the nape, are tawny-ochraceous of nearly as deep a shade as in typical brown birds. The dark shaft-stripes in this specimen are broader and blacker than in any of the others and the usual ashy cast beneath is replaced by an ochraceous one. The remaining two birds are similarly characterized but to a less marked degree. All three combine the gray and brown coloring of the respective extreme phases, precisely as do many of the eastern specimens before me, the gray and red conditions of S. asio.
The Portland specimen already mentioned, although in some respects an intermediate, is on the whole nearer the gray than the brown condition. Its general coloring is essentially similar to that of Mr. Henshaw’s bird, but the ground shade above is darker and the scapular spots are confined to the edges of two or three of the outer feathers, while the ochraceous wash beneath occurs only on the sides, lining of the wings, and tibiæ, the ground-color of the under parts being otherwise clear ashy-white.
An unusually large female from Hellgate, Montana (No. 18,299, Nat. Mus.), which Mr. Ridgway very naturally treated as asio in the “Birds of North America” (Vol. III, p. 50), agrees closely with Capt. Bendire’s specimens and with them must now be referred to kennicotti.
In the light of the present evidence it becomes necessary to rearrange the typical characters of this Owl. I accordingly offer the following diagnosis:—
Scops asio kennicotti. Wing, 6.40 to 7.60. Dichromatic, assuming either a gray or a tawny brown condition. Gray phase similar to that of asio, but with the plumage beneath thickly barred and streaked along the median line. Brown phase characterized by a general dusky-umber or tawny-ochraceous coloring unlike that of any other North American form.[[12]]
The following table includes the most essential measurements of all the specimens of kennicotti which I have examined, together with some taken at second hand, of Elliot’s type of the race.
| Gray and Intermediate. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wing. | Tail. | ||||||
| 6457, | W. B. | ♂ | ad. | Ft. Walla Walla, W.T. | Nov. 20, 1881. | 7.50 | 4.07 |
| 6458, | W. B. | ♂ | ad. | „ „ | Apr. 25, 1881. | 7.07 | 4.05 |
| 82,330, | Nat. Mus. | ♂ | ad. | „ „ | Dec. 22, 1880. | 7.06 | 4.25 |
| 6459, | W. B. | ♂ | juv. | John Day River. Ore. | Aug. 6, 1881. | 6.92 | 3.65 |
| 30,624, | C. Mus. | ♂ | ad. | Ft. Walla Walla. W.T. | Feb. 12, 1881. | 7.00 | 4.22 |
| H. W. H. | ♀ | ad. | „ „ | Nov. 7, 1880. | 7.05 | wanting | |
| 6456, | W. B. | ♀ | ad. | „ „ | Oct. 22, 1881. | 7.10 | 4.10 |
| 18,299, | Nat. Mus. | ♂ | ad. | Hellgate, Mon. | 7.60 | 4.10 | |
| 6466, | W. B. | ad. | Portland, Oregon. | 6.40 | 3.82 | ||
| Brown. | |||||||
| 4.530, | Nat. Mus. | Washington Ter. | 6.80 | 4.07 | |||
| 59,068, | Nat. Mus. | Idaho. | 6.67 | 3.65 | |||
| 59,847, | Nat. Mus. | ♂ | ad. | Sitka, Alaska. | March, 1866. | 7.40 | 4.00 |
During the course of the preceding investigation I had occasion to compare a large number of Eastern specimens of Scops asio with some California examples from Nicasio and Alameda County. Somewhat to my surprise, I detected several apparently constant differences which, taken in connection with the pretty definitely settled fact that the California bird is not, like asio, subject to dichromatism, seem to me to warrant the varietal separation of the two. I accordingly propose a new race as follows:—