A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 3 of 3Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Science
A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 3 of 3
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Birds -- North America
primaries are very narrowly bordered with white at the ends. Tail with
seven or eight very narrow bands of white, those on the middle feathers
purely so, becoming obsolete exteriorly; the last is terminal. Eyebrows,
lores, and face grayish-white, the grayish appearance caused by the
blackish shafts of the feathers; that of the face continues (contracting
considerably) across the lower part of the throat, separating a large
space of dark brown, which covers nearly the whole throat, from an
indistinct collar of the same extending across the jugulum,—this collar
uniting the lower ends of the auricular and cervical dusky bands, the
space between which is nearly clear white. Ground-color of the lower
parts white, but everywhere with numerous very regular transverse bars
of deep brown, of a tint more reddish than the back, the brown bars
rather more than half as wide as the white ones; across the upper part
of the breast (beneath the dark gular collar) the white invades very
much and reduces the brown, forming a broad lighter belt across the
jugulum; below this the brown bars increase in width, their aggregation
tending somewhat to a suffusion, giving the white jugular belt better
definition. On the legs and toes the bars are narrower, more distant,
and less regular.
The whole lining of the wing is barred just like the sides. The dark
brown prevails on the under surface of the primaries, etc.; the former
having transverse, irregular, elliptical spots of white, these touching
neither the shaft nor the edge: on the longest quill are seven of these
spots; on all they are anterior to the emargination.
♂ (49,808, Nulato, Alaska, April 21, 1867; W. H. Dall). Wing-formula,
3, 4–2–5–6–1. Wing, 9.00; tail, 7.00; culmen, .70; tarsus (of another
specimen; wanting in the present), .90; middle toe, .82.
♀ (49,807, Nulato, April 20; W. H. Dall). Wing-formula, 3, 4–2–5–6–7=1.
Wing, 9.00; tail, 6.80; culmen, .70; middle toe, .80.
HAB. Arctic America, south in winter into northern United States;
Wisconsin (DR. HOY); Massachusetts (DR. BREWER; MAYNARD); Dakota and
Montana (Mus. S. I.).
The Hawk Owl of North America is to be distinguished from that of
Europe and Siberia by the same characters which distinguish the
American Sparrow Owl from the European, namely, much darker shade of
the brown and its greater prevalence. Three perfect specimens of the
Old World bird (a pair from Lapland, and a specimen from Kamtschatka,
Petropawloosk, W. H. Dall) agree in prevalence of the white over the
head above, the confluence of the spots on the scapulars forming a
larger, more conspicuous patch, and very broad and almost immaculate
jugular belt; the brown bars beneath are very much narrower than in the
American bird, and the tint is not different from that of the back. The
legs and toes are scarcely variegated. While acknowledging the identity
of the two representative forms, the differences are such as to entitle
them to separation as races.
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