136 BCBO>ID^. 



the greater scries dark brown at base, ashy brown at tip, resembling 

 the inner lining- of the wing, which is ashy brown, broadly barred 

 with white on the inner web ; bill and irides pale yellow. Total 

 ength 10-5 inches, wing 7, tail 3-8, tarsus 1-25. 



Achth male. Similar to the female. Total length 9-5 inches, 

 wing 0-4, tail 3-6, tarsus 1'25. 



Nestli»ij. Dusky brown, and covered with down of this same 

 colour, the white spots on the wing-coverts very strongly developed, 

 the latter nearly entirely white, with central streaks of brown ; the 

 greater coverts brown, the outer webs whitish ; quills brown, tipped 

 with ashy grey, the outer webs notched with rufous buif ; under 

 surface dull wliite, with central streaks of brown. 



The above description is from a nestling collected by Mr. L. 

 Fraser, and having the feathers only slightly developed. i\ji older 

 bird, obtained from the same collector, exhibits the markings of an 

 adult bird, but is very much dingier, as is a fully grown young in- 

 dividual shot by Mr. Edward Bartlett, near Cairo. This bird is 

 dark brown, mottled with whitish or buff, and very closely resembles 

 the young of C. noctua. The under siu-face is whitish, streaked 

 with brown, the latter colour entirely predominating, and giving a 

 clouded appearance to the lower parts ; qiuUs and tail dull brown, 

 crossed with five bands of fulvous or pale fawn-colour ; head almost 

 uniform, with scarcely any fulvous spots. 



This species is certainly very closely allied to C. noctua ; and the 

 young appear to be almost indistinguishable from each other. It 

 may be regarded as a desert form of the European bird, with a 

 distinct range, being pale fawn-colour where C. noctua is dark 

 brown : hence it has a generally pale appearance. On raising the 

 wing the inner lining in C. ijlau.v is very pale, and inclines to ashy 

 brown, the white bars on the inner web very broad and contrasting 

 strongly, the bars on the inner web of the first piimary being four 

 in numl)er. In C. noctua the wmg-lining is much darker brown, 

 and only three bars are apparent on the inner web of the first pri- 

 maiy, all the bars on the inner web being not quite so broad. These 

 differences of wing-coloration are really very Httle more than part 

 of the general pale tone predominant in C. gJaux, and hardly con- 

 stitute specific characters. The specimen of C noctua from Greece 

 is so thoroughly intermediate, that I am incUned to look upon the 

 two liirds as races of one form. 



Hah. The southern countries of the Mediterranean, excepting the 

 immediate ncinity of Tangier ; thence extending into N.E. Africa, and 

 eastwards through Palestine and Persia to Afghanistan and Thibet. 



a. Pull. st. Tunis, L. Fraser, Esq. [C.]. 



b. Juv. St. Tunis. L. Fraser, Esq. [C.]. 



c. Ad. sk. Tunis. L. Fraser, Esq. [C.]. 



d. Ad. St. EgA-pt. W. B. D. TurnbuU, Esq. [P.]. 



e. f. Ad. sk. Egypt. Sir Samuel Baker [P.l. 



g. Imm. st. Thebes. Dr. A. Leith Adams [P.]. 



'h. Juv. sk. Cairo, June 26, 1864. E. Bartlett, Esq. [C.l. 



/. c^ ad. sk. Egvpt, March .5, 1868. Capt. G. E. Shelley [P. \ 



k. $ ad. sk. Favoom, Feb. 24, 1871. Capt. G. E. SheUev [P.j. 



