Specimens from the regions indicated vary but little, the only two possessing differences of any note being one (58,747,[30] ♂) from Southern Illinois, and one (33,218, San Jose; J. Carmiol) from Costa Rica. The first differs from all those from the eastern United States in much deeper and darker shades of color, the rufous predominant below, the legs and crissum being of quite a deep shade of this color; the transverse bars beneath are also very broad and pure black. This specimen is more like Audubon’s figure than any other, and may possibly represent the peculiar style of the Lower Mississippi region. The Costa Rica bird is remarkable for the predominance of the rufous on all parts of the plumage; the legs, however, are whitish, as in specimens from the Atlantic coast of the United States. These specimens cannot, however, be considered as anything else than merely local styles of the virginianus, var. virginianus.
Bubo virginianus, var. arcticus, Swains.
WESTERN GREAT HORNED OWL.
? Strix wapacuthu, Gmel. Syst. Nat. 1789, p. 290. Strix (Bubo) arctica, Swains. F. B. A. II, 1831, 86. Heliaptex arcticus, Swains. Classif. Birds, I, 1837, 328; Ib. II, 217. Bubo virginianus arcticus, Cass. Birds N. Am. 1858, 50 (B. virginianus).—Blakiston, Ibis, III, 1861, 320. Bubo virginianus, var. arcticus, Coues, Key, 1872, 202. Bubo subarcticus, Hoy, P. A. N. S. VI, 1852, 211. Bubo virginianus pacificus, Cass. Birds Cal. & Tex. 1854, and Birds N. Am. 1858 (B. virginianus, in part only). Bubo magellanicus, Cass. Birds Cal. & Tex. 1854, 178 (not B. magellanicus of Lesson!). Bubo virginianus, Heerm. 34.—Kennerly, 20.—Coues, Prod. (P. A. N. S. 1866, 13).—Blakiston, Ibis, III, 1861, 320. ? Wapacuthu Owl, Pennant, Arctic Zoöl. 231.—Lath. Syn. Supp. I, 49.
Char. Pattern of coloration precisely like that of var. virginianus, but the general aspect much lighter and more grayish, caused by a greater prevalence of the lighter tints, and contraction of dark pencillings. The ochraceous much lighter and less rufous. Face soiled white, instead of deep dingy rufous.
♂ (No. 21,581, Camp Kootenay, Washington Territory, August 2, 1860). Wing, 14.00; tail, 8.60; culmen, 1.10; tarsus, 2.00. Tail and primaries each with the dark bands nine in number; legs and feet immaculate white. Wing-formula, 3, 2=4–5–1.
♀ (No. 10,574, Fort Tejon, California). Wing, 14.70; tail, 9.50; culmen, 1.10; tarsus, 2.10; middle toe, 2.00. Tail and primaries each with seven dark bands; legs transversely barred with dusky. Wing-formula, 3, 4, 2–5–1, 6.
Hab. Western region of North America, from the interior Arctic districts to the table-lands of Mexico. Wisconsin (Hoy); Northern Illinois (Pekin, Mus. Cambridge); Lower California; ? Orizaba, Mexico.
Localities: (?) Orizaba (Scl. P. Z. S. 1860, 253); Arizona (Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 49).
The above description covers the average characters of a light grayish race of the B. virginianus, which represents the other styles in the whole of the western and interior regions of the continent. Farther northward, in the interior of the fur countries, the plumage becomes lighter still, some Arctic specimens being almost as white as the Nyctea scandiaca. The B. arcticus of Swainson was founded upon a specimen of this kind, and it is our strong opinion that the Wapecuthu Owl of Pennant (Strix wapecuthu, Gmel.) was nothing else than a similar individual, which had accidentally lost the ear-tufts, since there is no other discrepancy in the original description. The failure to mention ear-tufts, too, may have been merely a neglect on the part of the describer.