_Asio bubo virginianus_, BRISS. Orn. I, 484, 17, 1760. _Strix
virginiana_, GMEL. Syst. Nat. I, 287, 1788.—LATH. Ind. Orn. p. 52;
Syn. I, 119; Supp. I, 40; Gen. Hist. I, 304.—DAUD. Tr. Orn. II, 210,
pl. xiii.—WILS. Am. Orn. pl. l, f. 1.—BONAP. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. II, 37
and 435; Isis, 1832, p. 1139.—AUD. Birds Am. pl. lxi, 1831; Orn. Biog.
I, 313.—THOMPS. Nat. Hist. Vermont, pl. lxv.—PEAB. Birds Mass. p. 87.
_Bubo virginianus_, BONAP. List, p. 6, 1838; Consp. Av. p. 48.—JARD.
(WILS.) Am. Orn. II, p. 257.—DE KAY, Zoöl. N. Y. II, 24, pl. x, f.
2.—NUTT. Man. Orn. p. 124.—MAX. Cab. Jour. 1853, VI, 23.—KAUP, Tr.
Zoöl. Soc. IV, 1859, 241.—COUES, Key, 1872, 202. _Bubo virginianus
atlanticus_, CASSIN, Birds of Cal. & Tex. I, 178, 1854.—Birds N. Am.
1858, 49 (under _B. virginianus_). _Otus virginianus_, STEPH. Zoöl.
XIII, ii, 57, 1836. _Ulula virginiana_, JAMES. (WILS.), Am. Orn. I,
100, 1831. _Strix virginiana_, α, LATH. Gen. Hist. I, 306, 1821.
_Strix bubo_, δ, LATH. Ind. Orn. p. 52, 1790.—SHAW, Zoöl. VII, 215.
_Strix maximus_, BART. Trav. Carol. p. 285, 1792. _Bubo ludovicianus_,
DAUD. Tr. Orn. II, 210, 1800. _Bubo pinicola_, VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept.
pl. xix, 1807; Enc. Méth. p. 1282.
[Illustration: =6886= ½ ½
_Bubo virginianus._]
SP. CHAR. _Adult_ ♂ (12,057, Philadelphia; C. Drexler). Bases of all
the feathers yellowish-rufous, this partially exposed on the head above
and nape, along the scapulars, on the rump, and sides of the breast.
On the upper surface this is overlaid by a rather coarse transverse
mottling of brownish-black upon a white ground, the former rather
predominating, particularly on the head and neck, where it forms
broad ragged longitudinal stripes (almost obliterating the transverse
bars), becoming prevalent, or blended, anteriorly. The lower feathers
of the scapulars, and some of the lower feathers of the middle and
secondary wing-coverts, with inconspicuous transverse spots of white.
On the secondaries the mottling is finer, giving a grayish aspect,
and crossed with eight sharply defined, but inconspicuous, bands
of mottled dusky; primary coverts with the ground-color very dark,
and crossed with three or four bands of plain blackish, the last
terminal, though fainter than the rest; ground-color of the primaries
more yellowish, the mottling more delicate; they are crossed by nine
transverse series of quadrate dusky spots. The ground-color of the
tail is pale ochraceous (transversely mottled with dusky), becoming
white at the tip, crossed by seven bands of mottled blackish, these
about equalling the light bands in width; on the middle feathers the
bands are broken and confused, running obliquely, or, in places,
longitudinally. Outer webs of ear-tufts pure black; inner webs almost
wholly ochraceous; eyebrows and lores white, the feathers with black
shafts; face dingy rufous; eye very narrowly encircled with whitish; a
crescent of black bordering the upper eyelid, and confluent with the
black of the ear-tufts. Facial circle continuous black, except across
the foreneck; chin, throat, and jugulum pure immaculate white, to the
roots of the feathers. Beneath, white prevails, but the yellowish-rufous
is prevalent on the sides of the breast, and shows as the base color
wherever the feathers are disarranged. The sides of the breast, sides,
and flanks have numerous sharply defined narrow transverse bars of
brownish-black; anteriorly these are finer and more ragged, becoming
coalesced so as to form conspicuous, somewhat longitudinal, black spots.
On the lower tail-coverts the bars are distant, though not less sharply
defined. The abdomen medially is scarcely maculate white. Legs and toes
plain ochraceous-white.
[Illustration: =6886= ⅓
_Bubo virginianus._]
Wing-formula, 2, 3–4–1, 5. Wing, 14.50; tail, 8.20; culmen, 1.10;
tarsus, 2.00; middle toe, 2.00.
♀ (12,065, Maryland; R. J. Pollard). General appearance same as the
male. Black blotches on head above and nape less conspicuous, the
surface being mottled like the back, etc.; primary coverts with three
well-defined narrow pure black bands; primaries with only six bands,
these broader than in the male; secondaries with only five bands; tail
with but six dark bands, these very much narrower than the light ones.
Tibiæ and tarsi with sparse transverse bars of dusky. Wing-formula, 3,
2, 4–1=5. Wing, 16.00; tail, 9.00; culmen, 1.20; tarsus, 2.20; middle
toe, 2.10.
_Young._ Wings and tail as in adult. Downy plumage of head and body
ochraceous, with detached, rather distant, transverse bars of dusky.
(12,062, Washington, D. C., May 20, 1859; C. Drexler.)
HAB. Eastern North America, south of Labrador; west to the Missouri;
south through Atlantic region of Mexico to Costa Rica; Jamaica (GOSSE).
Localities: (?) Oaxaca (SCL. 1859, 390; possibly var. _arcticus_);
Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I. 222); Jamaica (GOSSE, 23); Texas (DRESSER,
Ibis, 1865, 330, breeds); Costa Rica (LAWR. IX, 132).
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.