_Noctua podargina_ Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London,
1872, p. 90. (Type locality, Pelew Islands.)
_Noctua podargina_ Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 4,
8, pl. 1, fig. 1 and 2 (Palau); Giebel, Thes. Ornith., 2, 1875, p.
720 (Pelew); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy,
1881, p. 407 (Palau).
_Ninox podargina_ Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 2, 1875, p. 151
(Palau); Bolau, Mitteil. Naturhist. Mus. Hamburg, 1898, p. 51
(Palau); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 61
(Pelew); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 181 (Palau).
_Scops podargina_ Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 2, 1875, p. 313
(Palau); Nehrkorn, Journ. f. Ornith., 1879, p. 394 (Palau);
Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891
(1891), p. 3 (Pelew); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 112
(Palau); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 2, 1904, p. 883 (Pelew).
_P[isorhina] podargina_ Reichenow, Die Vögel, 1913, p. 424
(Palau).
_Otus podarginus_ Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927,
p. 268 (Palau); Mayr. Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 1269, 1944, p. 3
(Palau); _idem_, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 291 (Palau).
_Pyrroglaux podargina_ Yamashina, Tori, 10, 1938, p. 1 (Pelew);
Peters, Check-list Birds World, 4, 1940, p. 109 (Babelthuap,
Koror); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 202 (Palau).
_Geographic range._--Micronesia: Palau Islands--Koror, Babelthuap,
Angaur.
_Characters._--Adult male: A small owl with forehead and
superciliary area whitish tinged with buff and narrowly barred
blackish-brown; feathers at base of upper mandible with long,
blackish shafts, crown and back rufous-brown; some feathers on
neck narrowly barred ochraceous and black; some scapulars with
outer webs barred dark brown and white; rump and upper
tail-coverts dark rufous, barred white and dark brown; tail
rufous, barred indistinctly dark brown, inner webs barred white
and dark brown; wings sandy rufous, outer edges of all but first
primary spotted buffy-white; lores rufous, shafts white;
indistinct eye ring rufous; ear-coverts whitish with rufous tips,
chin white; throat white narrowly barred with wavy dark lines and
tipped with rufous; breast pale rufous, feathers barred with white
and black; abdomen paler rufous; under tail-coverts often barred
with black and white without rufous wash; under wing-coverts white
barred with dark brown; bill and feet whitish; iris brown.
Adult female: Resembles adult male, but darker brown above with
fine vermiculations of blackish color; underparts may be pale or
dark rufous with slight or heavy white and brown barrings and
spots.
Immature: Resembles adult male, but upper parts darker brown;
forehead, crown, and back barred ochraceous and black; scapulars
with white shaft streaks and spots of white; underparts more
heavily barred.
_Measurements._--Eight males measure: wing, 155-163 (159); tail,
82-88 (84); culmen, 22.0-23.5 (23.0); tarsus, 32-35 (33); two
females measure: wing, 158, 165; tail, 83, 90; culmen, 23.5, 24.0;
tarsus, 33, 35.
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 11 (9 males, 2 females), as
follows: Palau Islands, USNM--Koror, 1 (Nov. 3); AMNH--exact
locality not given, 10 (Oct., Nov., Dec.).
_Remarks._--Coultas (field notes) found the Palau Scops Owl fairly
common around villages on the island of Koror. He obtained specimens at
night with the use of a flashlight. He writes that the bird moves about
considerably remaining on one perch and calling for only approximately
three minutes. The bird stays in the mangrove thickets in the daylight
hours. Marshall (1949:207) also found the owl at Koror as well as at
Peleliu in 1945. He observed 33 pairs on Koror (approximately one-half
of the total population) and four pairs on Peleliu. The NAMRU2 party did
not find the owl in the southern Palaus in 1945.
Yamashina (1938:1) gave the Palau Scops Owl the generic name,
_Pyrroglaux_. Mayr (1944b:3) has reviewed this treatment and presents
evidence to show that the name _Pyrroglaux_ should not be recognized and
that the bird correctly belongs in the genus _Otus_. He presents a
detailed discussion to show its relationship to _O. spilocephalus_, and
that the characters possessed by _O. podarginus_ are no more different
or unusual than those found in other members of this widespread genus.
It is pointed out that the reduction of the feathering is probably
caused by the change in habitat--from a colder one in Asia to a warmer,
tropical one in the Palaus. The bird is probably derived from _O.
spilocephalus_ of Asia and Malaysia.
=Asio flammeus flammeus= (Pontoppidan)