NIXOX. 



301 



of mice and grasshoppers m its stomach. The eg- I send you for description was taken by Mr. 

 E. J. Harris on the iitli November, 1901, and was the only one in the nesting place, which was 

 in a large limb of a Eucalypt, about seventy five feet from the ground. It was lying on the dry 

 rotten wood, and a few pellets of feathers and bones of small birds and mice." 



The eggs are two or three in number for a sitting, rounded-oval in form, white, the shell 

 being close-grained but minutely pitted and slightly lustrous. A set of two taken by'Mr. J. H. 

 Niemann, on the 21st September, 1902, on the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of South 

 Australia, measures : -Length (A) 175 x 1-33 inciies; (B) 171 x 1-27 inches. Another 

 set of two taken by him on the 22nd January, 1903, measures : -Length (A) 172 x 1-42 

 inches; (B) i-68 x 1-45 inches. A set of three taken on the iSth September, igo8, on 

 Kingfisher Creek, a tributary of the Coogan River, North-western Australia, measures:— 

 Length (A) 1-67 X 1-4 inches; (8)1-63 x 1-44 inches; (C) 1-63 x 1-41 inches. Another set 

 of three in Mr. Tiios. 1'. Austin's collection, taken in the same locality, on the loth September, 

 igoS, measures:— Length (A) 1-57 x 1-42 inches; (8)1-53 ^ i^ inches; (C) 1-67 x 1-4 

 inches. 



September and the four following munths constitute the usual breeding season in North- 

 western Australia and the Northern Territory of South Australia. 



Ninox macLiIata. 



SPOTTED CiWL. 

 Xiirhia macniata, Vig. and Horaf., Trans. Liiin. Soc, Vol. XV., p. I,s9 (l,S-27). 

 Alhrnr initciiliiia, Oould, Ixis. Austr,, fol. Vol. L, pi. 3.3 (1.S4.S). 

 SidJoglanx maciilatus, Gould, Handbk. Bd.s. Austr., Vol. L, p. 76 (18G.'i). 



Miwx mnatlnta, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. .Mus., Vol. IL, p. 17-t (lS7.-i) ; vl , Han.l-I. B,l,s., Vol I 

 p. -291 (1899). 



Adult UKl.v..-^(_^,-u,r„J colour above chocoIafe-br,m-u >rith rounded tr/u/e >^/,oh on ihr scapulars 

 and grea/rr whig-conrh, ihc head and hiud-iock siiiiilurhj marked, huj fh,- spot< nre much ^uiallcr 

 and of a duUcr while : b-sser and median upper wiiuj-corerts like, the back : quUh brown, crossed u-i/h 

 paler brou'u bars, and hurin,, a spoldike dull u-hile mark about the middle of the onler u-eb : tail 

 brown with the remains 0/ paler bnucu cross-bars, which are less distinct on the outer web of all but 

 the central pair c^' feathers : forehead and feathers anncnd the anterior portion of the eye u:hitish .- 

 lorc^ whitish, blackish at the tips; feathers below the eye and the ear-corerls brown, the chocolate-brown 

 feathers surrounding themjinely spotted or streaked with white .- chin whitish, remainder of the binder 

 surface chocolate-brown, lighter than the back, the fathers on the fjreueck streaked with white, those 

 of the breast andfanks with a white bar near their base and a large rounded white spot on either side 

 near the tip, and giving these parts a distinctly spotted appearance ; thighs and centre of lon-er 

 abdomen tawny uHth an ochreous wash : under tail-corerts dull white, their apical portion with a 

 pale brownish irregular-shaped shaft streak, widening ont inh, a blotch near the tip ■ " bill bluish- 

 black, paler on the culmen ; feet dirty-white.- daws dark horn colour: iris yell, or" (Holden). 

 Total length. 1:2 inches, wing S-l, tail .',, bill ft-S, tarsns l:'i. 



Adult fkm.^le. — Similar in plumage to the male, but slightly larger. Wing St!-', inches. 



Distribntion.—Kew South Wales, \"ictoria, South Australia, Tasmania, larger islands of 

 Bass Strait. 



gFN general appearance the Spotted Owl resembles a smaller form of the Boobook Owl, but 

 Jl. from which it may be chiefly distinguished by its lesser size ; the chocolate-brown hue of 

 the greater portion of the upper surface, and the more conspicuously rounded white markings of 



