284 Mr. T. Ayres on the Ornithology of Transvaal. 



Total length 20 inches, bill 1^, tarsus 3^, wing 15, tail 9|. 

 Irides tawny yellow ; bill and cere as in the male ; tarsi and 

 feet pale greenish yellow, with a dusky tinge. The crop 

 contained the remains of a large rat. 



Female, immature, shot 11th June. Irides dusky brown. 

 The crop contained the remains of a Snipe, probably a 

 wounded bird. 



Phasmoptynx capensis (Smith) . African Short-eared Owl. 



Female, shot 24th May. Irides hazel. 



Female, shot 2nd June. Irides dusky hazel-brown. 



284. Strix AFFiNis, Layard (ex Blyth). South-African 

 Screech-Owl. 



Female, shot 23rd January. Total length 13 inches, bill 

 (fully) If, tarsus 2|, wing lOf, tail 4|. Irides dark hazel; 

 bill pale flesh-colour, clouded more or less about the com- 

 missure ; cere pale chrome-yellow ; feet dusky. 



The Screech-Owl is not uncommon in the town of Pot- 

 chefstroom. 



[The Screech-Owl of South Africa, though united by Mr. 

 Sliarpe, in his recent ' Catalogue of the Striges,^ with Strix 

 fiammea, appears to me to be separable as a subspecies from 

 the European race, from which it is distinguished (more or 

 less conspicuously in difiorent individuals) by the greater 

 abundance and larger size of the dark spots on the entire 

 under surface. 



In my edition of Andersson's ^ Notes on the Birds of Damara 

 Land,' I applied to the South-African race the specific name 

 of '' poensis," founded on a West- African specimen ; but, 

 according to the observations of Prof. Bocage {' Ornithologie 

 d' Angola,' vol. i. p. 63), some West- African specimens occur 

 which do not differ from those of Europe ; and it may there- 

 fore be better to adopt for the South- African race the specific 

 name of " affinis," applied to it by Mr. Layard in the first 

 edition of his work on the Birds of South Africa. 



The present specimen differs from ordinary South-African 

 examples in the very grey colouring of the mantle, in the 

 larger size of the black spots on the sides of the neck, and 



