Birds from British East Africa and Uganda. 255 



Birds from Khartoum and Somaliland are somewhat 

 different from those from Gambia, especially in the young 

 bird, and a larger series may show that this form is distinct. 

 If this is so it would bear the name O. I. nigrovertex Erl. 

 (J. f. O. 1904, p. 233 : Gambo, Abyssinia). 



Otus leucotis granti. 



Pisorhina leucotis granti Kollibaj^^ Orn. Monatsb. 1910, 

 p. 148 : South-west Africa. 



Range. Damaraland and Angola, east to the Transvaal, 

 Natal, and Nyasaland. 



As shown by Kollibay, op. cit., the name Scops erlangeri 

 O. Grant (Ibis, 1906, p. 660 : Nyasaland) is preoccupied by 

 Pisorhina scops erlangeri Tschusi (Orn. Jahrb. 1904, p. 101: 

 Tallah, Tunisia), though he is not correct in stating that 

 Mr. Grant described his bird from south-west Africa. 



The single Angola bird before me is somewhat paler 

 than more southern specimens, and should a large series 

 show this character to be constant, it would perhaps need 

 separating. 



127. Strix woodfordi. Woodford's Brown Owl. 



Noctua woodfordi A. Smith, S. A, Q. Journal, ii. 1834, 

 p. 312 : South Africa. 



a. S ' Mt. Maroto, 4300 ft. Jan. 30. 



Total length in flesh : 14 inches. Wing: 249 mm. 



In good fresh plumage and in the cinnamon phase. 



I have carefully examined all the specimens of this Owl 

 and have come to the conclusion that only one race exists, 

 and that the characters pointed out for the supposed races 

 are merely individual. It is a very variable species, and 

 there appears to be at least two or three phases, i. e. a 

 blackish, a cinnamon, and a greyish. 



In one specimen from Ugogo in the Museum collection 

 two phases occur on the same bird, the head and part of the 

 mantle being blackish and the rest of the plumage being 

 cinnamon. 



I at first thought that the cinnamon phase represented the 

 young and the blackish the full adult (as, I believe, is the 



