_Scops flammeola_, LICHT. Mus. Berol. Nomenclat. p. 7, 1854.—KAUP,
Trans. Zoöl. Soc. IV, 226.—SCHLEGEL, Mus. de Pays-Bas, _Oti_, p.
27.—SCLAT. Proc. Zoöl. Soc. 1858, 96.—SCL. & SALV. P. Z. S. 1868,
57; Exot. Orn. VII, 99, pl. l, July, 1868.—GRAY, Hand List, I, 47,
1869.—ELLIOT, Illust. Birds Am. I, pl. xxviii.—COUES, Key, 1872, 203.
SP. CHAR. _Adult_ (42,159, Orizaba Mountains, “rare,” February 3, 1865;
Professor F. Sumichrast). Ground-color above pale cinereous, this
overlaid on the top of the head, nape, and back by a brownish-olive
shade, the ash showing pure only on the borders of the crown and on
the wing-coverts and scapulars; the whole upper surface transversely
mottled with white and blackish, the latter in the form of fine zigzag
lines and a splash along the shaft, this expanding transversely near
the end of the feather; the white is in the form of larger transverse
spots, these largest across the nape. Outer webs of the scapulars fine
light orange-rufous (becoming white beneath the surface), bordered
terminally with black. Coverts along the lower edge of the wing spotted
with pale rufous; outer webs of the several lower feathers of the middle
and secondary wing-coverts with a large conspicuous spot of white.
Secondaries crossed by four well-defined narrow pale ochraceous bands;
primary coverts transversely spotted with the same; primaries with about
five transverse series of very large white spots on the outer webs,
the spots approaching ochraceous next the shaft and towards the end of
the feather. Tail profusely mottled like the back, and crossed with
about five ragged, badly defined pale bands, the last of which is not
terminal. Ear-tufts inconspicuous.
Eyebrow white, feathers bordered with blackish; eye encircled with rusty
rufous; lores strongly tinged with the same; cheeks, ear-coverts, neck,
and jugulum with numerous transverse dusky bars upon a grayish-white
ground. Facial circle rusty-rufous spotted with black; throat with a
tinge of rufous; chin white.
[Illustration: _Scops flammeola._]
Lower parts, in general, white; each feather with a black shaft-stripe,
this throwing off bars in pairs, across the feather; the medial stripes
are very broad, forming longitudinal spots on the breast, and have here
an external rufous suffusion; lower tail-coverts very sparsely marked.
Tibiæ and tarsi white, with very sparse transverse dusky spots. Lining
of the wing plain yellowish-white; bars on under surface of primaries
very obsolete, except basally. Wing-formula, 3=4; 5, 2–6; 1=8. Wing,
5.40; tail, 2.45; culmen, .35; tarsus, .87; middle toe, .55.
_Young_ (first full, but imperfect plumage: ♂, 24,172, Fort Crook,
North California, August 23, 1860; John Feilner). Wings and tail as in
the adult (last pale band of latter apparently terminal). Whole head
and body with numerous, about equal, transverse bands of dusky and
grayish-white; the two colors about equal, but on lower parts both are
much wider and more distinct than above the white gradually increasing
posteriorly. Breast and outer webs of scapulars with a rusty tinge, the
latter scarcely variegated. Eyebrow white, feathers bordered with dusky;
eye-circle and ear-coverts bright rusty-rufous; lores much tinged with
the same. No facial circle. Wing, 5.50; tail, 2.70.
HAB. Guatemala and central Mexico, northward (along Sierra Nevada) to
Fort Crook; California (breeding).
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_.