The Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) is almost cosmopolitan in the North Temperate Zone. In Eurasia (see Peters 1940, Vaurie 1965), A. o. otus (Linnaeus, 1758) is found throughout the range of the species, except for the Canary Islands, where isolated A. o. canariensis Madarász, 1901, occurs. In North America two wide-ranging subspecies have been named, distinguished by size and color. “Eastern” A. o. wilsonianus (Lesson, 1830; type locality Pennsylvania) is reportedly larger and darker; “western” A. o. tuftsi Godfrey, 1948 (type locality South Arm, Last Mountain Lake, Saskatchewan) is reportedly smaller and paler (Godfrey 1948). The latter form was recognized by the AOU (1957), Monson and Phillips (1981), Marks et al. (1994), and Pyle (1997). Browning and Cross (1999) suggested the existence of even a third, as yet unnamed subspecies (see Marshall et al. 2006). But tuftsi was maintained as a junior synonym of wilsonianus by Rea (1983) and Unitt (1984). Rea (1983:171) wrote that “males are considerably darker than females” (n = 30) and questioned the validity of a paler western race. Kenneth C. Parkes “compared western birds of various museum ages … with topotypical Pennsylvania material and was unable to substantiate a western race” (loc. cit.). Parkes “doubted the validity of … ‘tuftsi’ … and suggested the supposed differences were artifacts of individual variation and museum age of specimens” (Unitt 1984:110).