Inyo Screech Owl at Fallon, Nevada
Inyo Screech Owl at Fallon, Nevada
On August 14, 1938, Mrs. Anna Bailey Mills, at her home 4 miles west of Fallon, Churchill County, Nevada, showed me two mounted screech owls and consented to my taking them to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology for comparison. Mrs. Mills described these owls as fairly common on her ranch, and particularly in evidence in spring when they most often attract attention to themselves by their calls.
Both specimens were taken 4 miles west of_Fallon, the male on December 8, 1937, and the other, judged by its larger size to be a female, at some earlier date. Measurements of these are, respectively, as follows: wing, 163 mm., 173; tail, 84, 88; culmen from cere, 13.4, 15.2. Comparisons with specimens of races from adjoining areas revealed greatest similarity to the type and three other winter-taken specimens of Oius asio inyoesis from Owens Valley, California. The birds from near Fallon, so far as I can see, differ importantly only in having more brownish color on the ruff and breast ; they have, however, less brownish color than average individuals at hand of O. a. quercinus and O. a. quercinus, and of course much less prominent black markings.
The race Otus ado inyoewis seems not before to have been definitely recorded from Nevada, although Oberholser’s (Jour. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. 27, 1937, p. 356) statement that “Specimens from Vernon and Jensen, northern Utah . . . referable to Otus asio inyoensis . . .indicate that the. . .subspecies extends over Nevada as far north as Fallon and east to northeastern Utah” suggests that he at least knew of the occurrence of screech owls near Fallon.
E. Raymond Hall
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California, August 25, 1938
