Aud., B. of Am., pl. 432, fig. 3; Oct. ed. I., pl. 29.
“Bill greyish, its ridge and tip greyish yellow; iris dark; claws
brownish black, lighter at the base; the general color of the upper
parts is chocolate brown; the feathers of the head have an oblong
white median mark, and, as they are small, this part is marked with
numerous spots; on the hind neck the white spots are very large,
forming a conspicuous patch; on the back most of the feathers have a
single large subterminal roundish spot, which is also the case with
the scapulars and wing coverts, some of which, however, have two or
more spots; all the quills have marginal reddish-white spots on both
webs, the third quill with six on the outer and four on the inner,
with two very faint pale bars toward the end; the tail is similarly
marked with four bands of transversely-oblong reddish-white spots; on
the anterior part of the disc, the feathers are whitish, with black
shafts, on the lower part whitish, on the hind part brown, tipped with
greyish-white; a broad band of white crosses the throat and curves
upward on either side to the ear; there is also a patch of white on
the lower part of the fore-neck, and between them is a brownish-grey
band; the general colour of the lower parts is dull yellowish-white,
each feather with a broad longitudinal band of chocolate-brown; the
abdomen and lower tail coverts unspotted; the tarsal feathers dull
white.”
Dimensions. Length, to end of tail, 10½ inches; to end of wings, 10;
wing, from flexure, 6¼; tail, 3½; tarsus, 1¼ inches. (Aud., as above.)
The bird here described is stated by Mr. Audubon to have been procured
near Pictou, Nova Scotia; and he appears to have been confident that it
was identical with the European _Strix passerina_. It is, however,
clearly not that species. We would suppose it to be the young of
_Nyctale Richardsoni_, were it not described as having the “iris dark.”
It may be a small and curious new species of _Syrnium_, or perhaps
_Nyctale_, and the procuring of specimens would be in a high degree
interesting. We have no knowledge of it ever having been observed since
the publication of the above description by Mr. Audubon.
6. Syrnium aluco. (Linn.)
Strix aluco. Linn., Syst. Nat. I., p. 132. (1766.)
Strix stridula. Linn., Syst. Nat. I., p. 133. (1766.)
Selby, Brit. Orn., pl. 25; Gould, B. of Eur. I., pl. 47.
This well known European species is given by Mr. Nuttall, in his “Manual
of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada” (I., p. 135), and is
stated by him to have been found in the northern regions of this
continent. Such is probably the case; but no American specimen has ever
come under our notice.
This species exhibits very nearly the same variety of plumage as the
American Red and Mottled Owls (_Scope asio_ and _nævia_), and has been
described repeatedly under different names.
7. Strix peregrinator. The Sharp-winged Owl. Bartram, Travels, p. 285.
(1793.)
With the head eared and the body variegated in color.
Impossible to determine from the brief description, though being given
as a species inhabiting Pennsylvania, probably applicable to the
Long-eared Owl (_Otus Wilsonianus_).
8. Strix diurnalis. The Short-winged Day Owl. Barton, Fragments of the
Nat. Hist. of Penna., p. 9. (1799.)
Stated by Professor Barton to have been observed by him in Pennsylvania
on the 15th of December, 1791, but of the species he gives no
description.
The names and descriptions now given comprise all that have come under
our notice, represented as inhabiting North America within our limits.
Of the birds of this family, the names proposed by the older American
naturalists and others, are not numerous; and though the group may be
regarded as presenting some difficulties to the student, the correct
nomenclature of North American species is not difficult to determine.
Bartram enumerated six species (Travels, p. 285), to all of which,
except one, he gives names for the first time employed to designate the
birds to which he alludes, and to a few of which he attaches sufficient
descriptions. All of his species had, however, been previously
described, and we have, we believe, cited his names as synonymes, so far
as they can be ascertained.
The greatest difficulty in the study of the Owls of North America will
be found in the intimate resemblance that a few species bear to others
of Europe and Asia, and, we may add, in the examination of the birds
which we have given in the preceding pages as varieties of the
Great-horned Owl (_Bubo virginianus_). The variations that we have
noticed, and especially those of color, may be ascertained by subsequent
observation to be so uniform and constant as to constitute specific
distinction, though at present we cannot so regard them.
In the Owls of other countries there are several groups in which it is
very difficult to determine the species, on account of their resemblance
to each other. This is especially the case with the small species of the
genus _Scops_, which inhabit India and other countries of Asia; and
there are, too, many of the birds of this genus, of all countries, that
are exceedingly perplexing. In fact, we would hardly recommend a student
in natural history to begin General Ornithology with the Owls.
With this family we conclude the rapacious Birds.
BUTEO INSIGNATUS.—(Cassin.)
The Brown Buzzard.
PLATE XXXI.—Adult Male and Young Female.
One of the most remarkable facts in the geographical distribution of the
birds of western and northwestern North America is, that many species
extend their range in northern latitudes almost or quite to the shores
of the Atlantic ocean, while not a single instance is on record of the
same species having been observed in either of the middle or southern
States of the Union. The Magpie, which on the Pacific is commonly found
southwardly as far as Mexico, has been noticed by Dr. Hoy, at Racine, in
the State of Wisconsin. The Lark Bunting (_Emberiza grammaca_), another
western bird, has also been ascertained by the same gentleman to be
abundant in the State just mentioned; and the only specimen that we have
ever seen of the Stone Chat of America (_Saxicola œnanthoides_), a bird
discovered some years since on the coast of Oregon, was obtained in the
vicinity of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Many instances tending to demonstrate this extensive and remarkable
migration might be produced, but we have unfortunately to acknowledge
ourselves unable to offer a theory or even hypothesis attempting to
account for it, and must regard the facts as remaining among many in
natural history with which naturalists are for the present under the
necessity of resting, without inference or application to any
established general principles. Important results will yet reward
American naturalists who may engage in this interesting field of
scientific research.
Instinct is little or nothing more than inherited memory. But we are by
no means satisfied that any definition which we have yet met with of the
faculty known by the latter name is strictly correct. Whatever memory
is, that inherited we are disposed to regard as instinct. And that the
impressions on this faculty are transmissable in animals from parents to
their offspring, we regard the migration of young birds, particularly
those of a first brood, when the parents remain to attend to a second,
as clearly substantiating.
The bird now before the reader is a species that appears to perform the
extended northward migration to which we have alluded, and is one of the
most remarkable instances that has come to our knowledge. It was first
described by us from a specimen obtained in the vicinity of Montreal,
Canada, and the only instance of its having been observed since, has
been by Dr. Heermann, in California; though if ever occurring in the
middle or southern States on the Atlantic, in the same latitude as on
the Pacific, it has escaped the researches of all previous naturalists
or travellers.
[Illustration: Plate 31
The Brown Hawk
Buteo insignatus (_Cassin_)]
Adult and young birds of this species were observed, and specimens were
obtained by Dr. Heermann, who ascertained that it reared its young in
California.
For an opportunity to examine the specimen originally described by us in
the present volume (p. 102), we are indebted to our lamented friend and
correspondent, M. McCulloch, M. D., a naturalist of extensive
acquirements, and an eminent physician, late of Montreal, but, we much
regret to add, now recently deceased, and to John Pangman, Esq., of
Grace Hall, in the vicinity of that city. Mr. Pangman had the kindness
to interest himself, in conjunction with Dr. McCulloch, so much as to
obtain the loan of the specimen from the Natural History Society of
Montreal, in the museum of which it was deposited, and to bring it for
our inspection to Philadelphia, and we shall not soon forget his evident
and enlightened gratification, nor our own great pleasure, when we
assured him that it was a bird hitherto unknown as an inhabitant of
North America, and, as we then supposed, very probably an undescribed
species, which we subsequently ascertained to be the case.
This is one of the most remarkable of the rapacious birds which have
been recently added to the ornithological fauna of the United States. It
differs entirely in color from any previously-known American species,
unless it may be supposed to approximate in that character to the
little-known Harlan’s Buzzard of Audubon. It bears also some distant
resemblance to one stage of plumage of the Black Hawk.
The only information relative to the habits of this bird that we have in
our power at present to lay before the reader, is the following from the
Journal of Dr. Heermann:
“I first remarked this species at the crossing of Graysonville ferry, on
the San Joaquim river, California, and continued to meet with it
occasionally until we had crossed Kern river. Owing to the lateness of
the season, I was able to ascertain but little respecting its
propagation; the only nests which were found having been forsaken some
time previously by the young. These nests, composed externally of coarse
sticks, and lined with roots, were built in the topmost branches of
oaks, which grow abundantly on the banks of the large water-courses.
“This bird, like the rest of its genus, appears sluggish in its habits,
perching for hours in a quiescent state on some tall tree, and
permitting the hunter to approach without showing any signs of fear.
This apparent stolidity may, however, be owing to the fact that it is
seldom molested, and has not yet learned to mistrust a gun, as do the
birds of prey in more settled portions of the country.”
The specimens brought by Dr. Heermann are now in the national collection
at Washington city.