_Noctua aurita minor_, CATESBY, Carol. I, 1754, 7, pl. vii. _Asio
scops carolinensis_, BRISS. Orn. I, 1760, 497. _Strix asio_, LINN.
Syst. Nat. 1758, 92.—GMEL. S. N. 1789, 287.—LATH. Ind. Orn. 1790,
54.—IB. Syn. I, 123.—IB. Supp. I, 42; Gen. Hist. I, 314.—DAUD.
Tr. Orn. II, 1800, 216.—SHAW, Zoöl. VII, 1809, 229.—TEMM. Pl.
Col. 80.—WILS. Am. Orn. 1808, pl. xlii, f. 1.—JARD. (ed. WILS.)
Orn. I, 1831, 307.—BONAP. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. II, 36.—IB. Isis, 1832,
1139.—AUDUBON, Birds N. A. 1831, pl. xcvii.—IB. Orn. Biog. I,
486.—BREWER (ed. WILS.) Orn. 1852, p. 687.—HOBS. Nat. 1855, 169. _Bubo
asio_, VIEILL. Ois. Am., Sept., 1807, 53, pl. xxi.—GIRAUD, Birds Long
Island, 1844, 28.—MAX. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 23. _Otus asio_, STEPHENS,
Zoöl. XIII, pt. ii, 1815, 57. _Scops asio_, BONAP. List, 1838,
6.—LESS. Tr. Orn. 107.—CASS. Birds Cal. & Tex. 1854, 179.—IB. Birds N.
Am. 1858, 51.—KAUP, Monog. Strig. Cont. Orn. 1852, 112.—STRICKL. Orn.
Syn. I, 1855, 199.—HEERM. P. R. Rept. II, 1855, 35.—COOP. & SUCKL.
P. R. Rept. 155.—MAYNARD, Birds Eastern Mass., 1870, 131.—COUES, Key,
1872, 202.—GRAY, Hand List, I, 1869, 46. _Ephialtes asio_, GRAY, Gen.
B. fol. 1844, sp. 9.—IB. List Birds Brit. Mus. 1844, p. 96.—WOODH.
1853, 62. _Strix nævia_, GMEL. S. N. 1789, 289.—LATH. Ind. Orn. 1790,
p. 55.—IB. Syn. I, 126; Gen. Hist. I, 321.—DAUD. Tr. Orn. II, 1800,
217.—SHAW, Zoöl. VII, 1809, 230.—WILS. Am. Orn. 1808, pl. xix, f. 1.
_Asio nævia_, LESS. Man. Orn. I, 1828, 117. _Otus nævius_, CUV. Reg.
An. (ed. 2), I, 1829, 341. _Surnia nævia_, JAMES. (ed. WILS.), Orn.,
1831, I, 96 & 99.
_a._ _Normal plumage._
SP. CHAR. _Adult._ Ground-color above brownish-cinereous, palest on
the head, purest ashy on the wings, minutely mottled with fine zigzag
transverse bars of black, each feather with a medial ragged stripe
of the same along the shaft. Inner webs of ear-tufts, outer webs of
scapulars, and oval spots occupying most of the outer webs of the two or
three lower feathers of the middle and secondary wing-coverts, white,
forming (except on the first) conspicuous spots, those of the scapulars
bordered with black. Secondaries crossed with about seven regular paler
bands, each enclosing a more irregular dusky one; the ground-color,
however, is so mottled with grayish, and the pale bands with dusky,
that they are by no means sharply defined or conspicuous, though they
are very regular; alula and primary coverts more sharply barred with
cream-colored spots, those on the former nearly white; primaries with
broad quadrate spots of creamy-white on outer webs, these forming from
seven (♂) to eight (♀) transverse bands, the last of which is not
terminal. Tail more irregularly mottled than the wings, and crossed by
seven (♂) to eight (♀) narrow, obsolete, but continuous, pale bands.
Eyebrows white, the feathers bordered with dusky (most broadly so in
♂); cheeks, ear-coverts, and lower throat dull white, with transverse
bars of blackish (most numerous in the ♂); chin immaculate; upper eyelid
dark brown; facial circle black; neck and jugulum like the cheeks, but
more strongly barred, and with blackish along the shaft. Ground-color
of the lower parts white, each feather with a medial stripe of black,
this throwing off distinct bars to the edge of the feather; the medial
black is largest on sides of the breast, where it expands into very
large conspicuous spots, having a slight rusty exterior suffusion; the
abdomen medially, the anal region, and the lower tail-coverts, are
almost unvaried white. Tibiæ and tarsi in the male dull white, much
barred transversely with blackish; in the female, pale ochraceous, more
sparsely barred with dark brownish. Lining of the wing creamy-white,
varied only along the edge; light bars on under surface of primaries
very obsolete.
♂ (16,027, Fort Crook, North California; John Feilner). Wing, 6.70;
tail, 3.80; culmen, .61; tarsus, 1.35; middle toe, .72; ear-tufts, 1.00;
wing-formula, 3=4, 5–2, 6, 1=9. “Length, 9.50; extent, 23.75.”
♀ (18,299, Hellgate, Montana; Jno. Pearsall). Wing, 7.80; tail, 4.10;
culmen, .70; tarsus, 1.70; middle toe, .80; ear-tufts, 1.00.
_Young_ ♂ (No. 29,738, Wood’s Hole, Mass., July 25, 1863; S. F. Baird.
“Parent gray”). Secondaries, primaries, and tail, as in the adult,
gray plumage; but the latter more mottled, the bands confused. Rest of
the plumage everywhere grayish-white, with numerous transverse bars of
dusky-brown; eyebrows and lores scarcely variegated dull white; facial
circle obsolete.
♀ (41,891, Philadelphia, Penn.; J. Krider). Whole head, neck, back,
rump, and entire lower parts transversely barred with dark brown and
grayish-white, the bands of the former on the upper parts rather
exceeding the white in width, but on the lower surface much narrower;
scapulars with large transverse spots of white on the outer webs. Wings
and tail as in the adult. Facial disk conspicuous. (More advanced in age
than the preceding.)
_b._ _Rufescent plumage._
_Adult._ General pattern of the preceding; but the grayish tints
replaced by lateritious-rufous, very fine and bright, with a slight
vinaceous cast: this is uniform, and shows no trace of the transverse
dark mottling; there are, however, black shaft-lines to the feathers
(these most conspicuous on the head above, and scapulars, and narrower
and more sharply defined than in the gray plumage). The inner webs
of the ear-tufts, outer webs of scapulars, and lower secondary and
middle wing-coverts, are white, as in the gray plumage; those of the
scapulars are also bordered with black. The secondaries, primaries,
and tail are less bright rufous than the other portions, the markings
as in the gray plumage, only the tints being different. The upper
eyelid, and, in fact, all round the eye, fine light rufous; cheeks and
ear-coverts paler, scarcely variegated; black facial circle rather
narrower than in the gray plumage. Lower parts without the transverse
bars of the gray plumage, but in their place an irregular clouding of
fine light red, like the back; the lower parts medially (very broadly)
immaculate snowy-white; most of the feathers having the red spotting
show black shaft-stripes, but the pectoral spots are not near so large
or conspicuous as in the gray bird. Tibiæ fine pale ochraceous-rufous;
tarsi the same posteriorly, in front white with cuneate specks of
rufous; lower tail-coverts each with a medial transversely cordate spot
of dilute rufous, the shaft black. Lining of the wing with numerous
rufous spots.
♂ (12,045, Washington, D. C., January). Wing, 6.30; tail, 3.00.
♀ (22,512, Maryland; R. G. Campbell). Wing, 6.70; tail, 3.50.
_Young_ (29,792, Peoria, Illinois; Ferd. Bischoff). Wings and tail as in
adult; markings on head and body as in the young gray bird, but white
bars more reddish, and dark ones more brown.
HAB. Temperate North America, from the South Atlantic States to Oregon,
and from the northern United States to Texas. Replaced in the southern
Middle Province and Southern California by var. _maccalli_, in Florida
by var. _floridana_, and on the northwestern coast region by var.
_kennicotti_.
Localities: (?) Cuba (CABANIS, Journ. III, 465).
The above stages of plumage have caused ornithologists a great deal of
perplexity; and it is only very recently that they have become correctly
understood. Even yet many persist in regarding the red plumage as being
that of the young bird.
[Illustration: _Scops asio._]
That these two very different plumages are entirely independent of
age, sex, or season, and that they are purely individual, there can
be no doubt; since in one nest there may often be found both red and
gray young ones, while their parents may be either both red or both
gray, the male red and the female gray, or _vice versa_. Occasionally
specimens (such as No. 39,093, ♂, Neosho Falls, Kansas, April 13; parent
of five eggs, and captured on the nest with a gray male) are exactly
intermediate between these two plumages, it being difficult to decide
which predominates; the combination is not only of the tints, but of the
markings, of the two stages.
HABITS. The habit of all the varieties of _Scops asio_ in their
different localities will be found after their zoölogical description.
Scops asio, var. floridana, RIDGWAY.
_Scops asio_, ALLEN, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl. and other citations from
Florida.
CHAR. Similar to var. _asio_, but much smaller, and the colors deeper.
The gray stage very similar to that of var. _asio_, but the red phase
very appreciably different, in there being a greater amount of rufous
on the lower parts, the breast being nearly uniformly colored, and the
rufous broken elsewhere into transverse broad bars, connected along the
shaft. Wing, 5.50–6.00; tail, 2.75–3.10.
HAB. Florida and Lower Georgia.
This extreme southern form is much smaller than the more northern ones,
being about the same in size as the var. _enano_ (see p. 1374) of Middle
America, and the _S. atricapilla_, Temm., of Tropical America generally.
The colors, as may be expected, are also darker and richer.
In the collection of the Smithsonian Institution there are both red
and gray birds from Florida; a red one (No. 5,857, Indian River; Dr.
A. W. Wall) measures, wing, 5.50; tail, 2.70; culmen, .55; tarsus, 1.05;
middle toe, .65; ear-tufts, .70. The colors are much darker than those
of typical _asio_. The rufous of the neck, all around, shows obsolete
darker transverse bars; the black border to the white scapular spots
is restricted to the tip, as in the gray plumage; the inner webs of
the ear-tufts are scarcely paler than the outer; the neck and face are
deeper rufous, while the rufous of the lower parts is more general, and
more in transverse rays; tibiæ and tarsi plain rufous; the middle of the
abdomen and the anal region only are pure white.
Scops asio, var. maccalli, CASS.