422 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton on the 



circled about the Owl, one of them finally settling on the 

 same branch with the evident intention of robbing it. The 

 Owl was greatly excited and was keeping up its deep 

 grunting hoot without intermission, but unluckily the 

 Eagles saw me at this moment and made off in ever- 

 ascending circles into the air. 



A fine male of this species was brought to me on July 29th, 

 1906, by a Zulu, who had shot it as it was endeavouring 

 to eflTect an entrance to his hen-roost near Chirinda. It 

 measured 24 inches in the flesh ; its bill was very pale green- 

 grey, the cere slightly darker with a distinct tinge of dusky 

 cobalt ; the base of the claAvs was like the cere, but with 

 blackish tips ; the soles were dirty whitish ; the skin of the 

 upper eyelid was greenish white (practically the same as 

 the bill), tinged in the centre with a slightly wattled patch 

 of rose-pink. 



On April 11th, 1907, the same native brought me two 

 nestlings in down. The nest, he stated, was on the ground 

 amongst long grass. These birds used to utter when feeding 

 a harsh low chirp and a feeble mouse- like squeak, and when 

 annoyed they could already hiss most vigorously. They 

 also possessed the low stridulous hawk-like note uttered by 

 Syrnium woodfordi when hungry. When hungry them- 

 selves they used to become quite energetic, tumbling over 

 each other and mouthing with their beaks over oue^s fingers, 

 each other, and the sides of the basket in which they were 

 confined. They were covered with long buff-coloured down, 

 that on the face being miich shorter and whiter, while its 

 distribution there in two separate ridges connecting the eye- 

 brow with the cere added greatly to the ugliness of the birds. 

 They had a curiously vulturine appearance, and a high fringe 

 of down (growing only along the centre of the crown, but 

 overhanging and completely hiding the bare tract on either 

 side as far as the orbits) formed a great contrast to the com- 

 parative bareness of the face. The bill and cere were pale 

 fleshy pink, the ridge of the latter duskier. The feet were 

 pale dusky, lightest below the ankle-joint (where feathers 

 were already appearing), and becoming duskier towards the 



