Habits. This is essentially a Mexican and Central American species, occurring among the mountains of Mexico and thence to Guatemala. One individual, however, the only one as yet recorded as taken in the United States, was obtained at Fort Crook by Captain John Feilner, and is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. This was a young bird, evidently raised in that locality, and apparently showing that the species breeds in that vicinity. It has been taken also at Orizaba, in the State of Vera Cruz, Mexico. Nothing is known as to any peculiarities of habit. These are not probably different from those of the asio.

Genus BUBO, Dum.

Gen. Char. Size varying from medium to very large; head with or without ear-tufts. Bill black; iris yellow. Two to four outer quills with their inner webs emarginated. Third or fourth quill longest. Bill very robust, the lower mandible nearly truncated and with a deep notch near the end; cere gradually ascending basally (not arched) or nearly straight, not equal to the culmen. Tail short, a little more than half the wing, slightly rounded. Ear-conch small, simple, without operculum; the two ears symmetrical.

Subgenera.

Bubo. Two to three outer quills with their inner webs emarginated. Ear-tufts well developed; loral feathers not hiding the bill, and the claws and terminal scutellæ of the toes exposed. Lower tail-coverts not reaching the end of the tail. (Type, B. maximus.)

Nyctea. Four outer quills with their inner webs emarginated. Ear-tufts rudimentary; loral feathers hiding the bill, and claws and entire toes concealed by long hair-like feathers. Lower tail-coverts reaching to end of the tail. (Type, N. scandiaca.)

The species of this genus are mostly of very large size, two of them (B. maximus and N. scandiaca) being the largest birds of the family. They are nearly cosmopolitan, and are most numerous in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Subgenus BUBO, Dum.

Species and Races.