36 BIRDS OF DAMARA LAND. 



the attack, but, by a rapid succession of violent blows 

 from its formidably armed wings, generally succeeds, in 

 a short time, in prostrating its wily enemy ; and some- 

 times a well-directed blow on the vertebrse of the snake 

 at once ends the combat. As soon as this is ac- 

 complished the bird dexterously seizes its fallen enemy 

 in its bill, and, after having well tossed it backwards and 

 forwards, finally puts an end to the death-struggle by 

 transfixing the brain with its powerful beak. 



STRIGID^. 



46. Strix poensiSi Fraser. South-African Screech-Owl. 



Strix poemis, Fraser, in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1842, p. 189. 



Strix affinis, Layard's Cat. No. 65. 



Strix Jlaimma, Chapman's Travels in S. Afr., App. p. 393. 



South of the Orange River this Owl is exceedingly 

 common ; but north of that river it is a very scarce bird, 

 tliough widely distributed over all tlie countries of which 

 these notes treat. 



Measurements of a male and a female : — 



[I believe that no figure of this Owl has yet been published. 

 It is very closely allied to Strix flummea of Europe and Northern 

 Africa, from wliicli it appears only to differ in its slightly larger 

 average measurements^ in the somewhat deeper colouring of the 

 upper surface generally^ and in the under surface being more 

 [)rofusely sprinkled with small dark spots. — Ed.] 



