NINU.X. 



297 



BOOIIOOK IIWL. 



As pointed out by the late Dr. H. B. Shaipe, Latham's descriptions of the type of the present 

 species is fijunded upon one of Watling's paintin.L;s, made in Sydney during the early days of the 



settlement of New South Wales, and which is m.w in 

 the British Museum. There is a great variation in 

 colour, especially of the upper parts, some beinj; \ ery 

 much darker than others procured even in the same 

 locality. As in Watling's days, it is still to be found in 

 the heart of the city and the surrounding suburbs, the 

 above description being taken from an adult male pro- 

 cured by the late Mr. Henry Newcombe at Kanduick. 

 \'ery much darker on the upper parts is an adult male 

 procured by Mr. J. Stein at Smithheld, as is also an 

 adult female presented liy the Deputy Town Clerk, Mr. 

 W. G. Layton. This bird flew in broad dayli^bt, in 

 the early part of September, 1908, into the entrance of 

 the Town Hall, George Street, Sydney, where it was 

 captured. In the Australian Museum Collection there 

 are a number of specimens from all of the Australian 

 ^^^"^ States, Mr. George Masters obtaining examples from 

 Mongup, Salt Ri\er, Western Australia, to Wide liay, 

 in (.Queensland ; by far, however, the greater number 

 were obtained in the neighbourhood of Sydney. Individual \ariation exists, too, in the amount 

 of white on the face, examples from the Lachlan River, New South Wales, procured by the 

 late Mr. K. II. Bennett, ha\ing a more pronouncedly white face, and more white on the under- 

 parts, than others procured near Sydney; so also have specimens obtained by Mr. G. A. 

 Keartland at the Finke River and .Alice Well, in Central Australia, in 1894, during the visit 

 there of the Horn Scientific Expedition. 



It is chiefly noctural m habits, resorting to hollows of trees, crevices in rocks, or boughs 

 sheltered with dense foliage, during the day time, and seelcing for its food about dusk or when 

 moonlight, its prey consistin.i,' principally of large insects, small mammals, birds and land crabs. 

 Stomachs examined contained the remains of insects, mice and small birds. One obtained at 

 Boloco, in July, 1901, had the remains of carapaces and claws of land crabs, also a number of 

 small seeds in its crop. Mr. N. Etheridge, of Colo \'ale, informed me that the stomach of a 

 bird he examined, procured in that locality, contained fifteen more or less perfect specimens of 

 large green locusts. Boobook Owls used to be a great nuisance at the Australian .Museum, 

 Sydney, in 1887-8. Dr. H. P. Ramsay, the then Curator, and who used to reside on the premises, 

 had an aviary on either side of the private entrance to the building facing William Street. 

 Being interested at the time in the breeding of several species of rare Finches, obtained from 

 Northern and North-western .\ustralia, I used to examine the aviaries every morning. On 

 several occasions Dr. Ramsay and I found therein one or more of the Finches dead on the 

 floor, and minus one leg. At lirst we conjectured it was caused by rats, but as the floor was 

 formed of paving stones, and the mesh of the wire very fine, we concluded that was impossible. 

 Several times on moonlight nights the Finches were heard flying about as if much disturbed, 

 and the next morning more dead birds would be found. At last we discovered one night a 

 Boobook Owl, with noiseless flight, fluttering in front of one of the aviaries, and as the Finches 

 flew about and finally settled on the wire, it quickly seized them by a leg and attempted to draw 

 them through, which only resulted in the Finch's leg being torn off", and a mutilated or dead 

 bird falling on to the floor of the aviary. So bold did the Owls become that one night, on 



* Hist. Colls. Brit. Mu.s. Bds., p^ 112 (1906) 



