462 Letters, Announcctnenis, ^c. 



that the curve to the right is perfectly regular, and not a mal- 

 formation, and that it will probably be found subservient to some 

 part of the natural economy of the species, of which we are yet 

 ignorant. In my collection I have placed the bird between 

 Sti-ejjsilas and Chai-adrius, taking C, hiaticula as typical of the 

 last ; but I must say that I have not yet closely examined them. 



Yours, &c., Wm. Jardine. 



12t]i September 1869. 

 Sir, — Professor Huxley has submitted to my examination 

 two skins of " a species of Campanero " obtained by Mr. Charles 

 B. Brown " near the Arapu river, one day's journey from Mount 

 Koraima," in Demerara. They turn out to belong to Chas- 

 morhynchus variegatus, and thus prove that the Venezuelan 

 species, concerning which I have before written (Ibis, 1866, p. 

 406), extends into the highlands of British Guiana — an interest- 

 ing fact in geographical distribution. In a letter accompany- 

 ing the specimens Mr. Brown says : — "At midday this bird utters 

 its cry, which resembles the sound produced by the blow of a 

 hammer, and is not unlike the cry of the Campanero or Bell- 

 bird, only harsher. The eye is large and black ; and the throat 

 is capable of great expansion, by means of three or four muscles." 



I am, &c., P. L. ScLATER. 



14t]i September, 1869. 

 Sir, — During a recent visit to the Museum of the Jardin des 

 Plantes at Paris, I had an opportunity of examining the Owl 

 which was brought from Abyssinia by MM. Petit and Dillon 

 and was subsequently described and figured by MM. Des Murs 

 and Prevost (Rev. Zool. 1846, p. 242, and 'Voyage en Abyssinie,' 

 pi. iii.) as the type of their Bubo dilloni. I find this species to 

 be identical with that subsequently described and figured by Sir 

 Andrew Smith (111. Zool. S. Afr. ii. pi. 70) under the name of 

 B. capensis ; but as this name was probably founded on the Striaa 

 capensis of Daudin (Tr. Orn. ii. p. 209), published in 1800, it 

 ought in that case to take precedence, and B. dilloni sink into a 

 synonym. The example obtained by MM. Petit and Dillon is the 

 only one I have ever seen from any locality north of the equator. 



