Milford chronicle., 1896-02-14
AN UNDERSIGNED owl.
A Well Known California Bird Of thu
Night That Has No Name.

A Well known California Bird Of the
Night That Has No Name.
The important discovery has been made
In Washington that the horned owl Of Cal
lfornia has no name.
This may be largely due to tho retiring
nature of this meditative songster Of the
moonlight, which has kept it from intrud-
Ing itself into the business of ornithOlo-
gists with double barreled shotguns, but
the fact remains that the we'll known
horned owl of the Sierra forests has just
been discovered. In fact, there IS no
horned owl west of the Missouri river that
has a name-that is real namo Besides
the nicknames which vulgar speech has
bestowed.
Ornithologists have always supposed
that California has put up with the same
kind of an ordinary horned owl that has
been given to the rest Of America, and
they have oarelessly called our fine bird
with the peaked tufts behind its cars the
Bubo virginianus subarotious. But now
California may boast horned owl Of its
own. More than that, it has been discov-
cred that there is no such thing as a Bubo
| virginianus subarctious at all. This is
| but another of the mass of things which
constantly show how ignorant ornitholo-
gists are when it comes to birds.
1t has been known for "a long time that
a white horned owl of the name of Bubo
virginianus arcticus hourishos north of
the Canadian border, and that south of it,
west of the Missouri, other horned owls
live and toot from the plains to the Pacific
ocean. Years ago big bird man named
Hoy shot horned owl out west, supposed
1t TO be the regular horned owl of the
west, called it virginianus subarcticus
and ever since then tho specimen, nicely
put away in arsenic in the Smithsonian
institution, has been the type of authority
on western horned owls.
It was Ornithologist Leverett NJ. LOOMS
Of the Academy Of Sciences who discovered
this owlish scientific blunder while on the
eastern visit from which he has just re-
turned. He had taken two owlskins along,
with lot Of other specimens intended for
comparison and study in the great eastern
geological museums, and on investigation
concerning the owls he found that the Hoy
type was a stray Canadian from the north
for one thing and for another thing that
the California horned owl has white feet,
reddish dress and other differences that
made 1t distinct type. As it is a discov-
erer's sole province to bestOw names he
will call tho horned owl of the Rockies
and the plains the Bubo virginianus hOyi,
after the man who made the mistake, but
he is still thinking about what no will call
the new owl that he has given to Califor
mia.
OF course California is rich in other owls
that the ornithOlogists have managed to
name correctly. There are the charming
saw whet, so called because its song sug-
gests saw sharpening in a sawlnill; the
California screech, which bellies the rumor
that California birds have no song; the /
burrowing owl of the Pacific coast, that |
lives with the gophers and chipmunks, |
and so on.
Mr.. Loomis has also named u new spe-
cies of clearwater, an ocean bird, that he /
discovered during his months of daily 1
boating 10 miles off Monterey, and it will /
go into tho books as tho Putiinus gill /
berti, - after DR.. Gilbert of Stanford uni
versity.
The particular occasion of Mr.. LOOMS
trip east was the thirteenth annual con
gress of the American archaeological I'M
ion at Washington, at which ho read a pa
per quite paralyzing to tho bird scientists
there. Loomis has for Il great many years
been a special authority on bird migra-
ton, and it was the discoveries concerning
the pelagic birds of the Pacific, made dur
Ing his relentless boating trips far off tho
shore at Monterey, that he gave to the sci
ence of ORTHODOXY. The ocean birds of
the Pacific are but very little known, and
from three to ten miles off the Pacific
shore anywhere are millions of ocean birds
never seen on shore. LOOmis got out
among them daily for months, gathered
many specimens never reported before in
This part of the world, found species never
anywhere and made a special
study Of migations He discovered and
the fact new to science, that
ocean birds, in their long migrations be-
ween the arctic and the southern regions,
are not guided by instinct, but always
Keep the shore line in view and are guided
by it. Birds that fly high fly farther from
hore. All swing in to follow the bend in
he coast line, and during fogs they fly
lose to tho surf to be guided by the sound.
During the IS months that Professor
JUOmis has b0en here he has increased the
collection Of the Academy
Z Sciences from 100 to 5000 specimens
nd is in a hurry to make it 30, COO, though
his would be small compared with the
hree or four great collections Of the east.
Tho Academy of Sciences is doing notable
FORK IN the almost unwoTkod field of the
iFds Of the Pacilc.-San Francisco Call.