308 liur.oMb.E. 



like the surface of the sliell, they are generally lustrous. A set of two in the Australian Museum 

 Collection, taken by Mr. H. G. Barnard, at Bimbi, Duaringa. Queensland, on the 5th November, 

 1905, measures : — Length (A) iS^ x 1-56 inches; (H) r.S.S x 1-57 inches. A set of three 

 taken by Mr. Barnard, in the same locality, on the ist October, 190S, measures : — Length (A) 

 r82 X 1-57 inches; (B) 1-78 x 1-52 inches; (C) 1-77 x 1-47 inches. A set in Mr. Thos. P. 

 Austin's Collection, tak'en by him on Cobborah Station, (^.obliora. New South Wales, on the 

 9th October, 196S, measures:— Length (A) rS3 x 1-53 inches; (P>) rSi x 1-51 inches: (C) 

 I '86 X i'53 inches. 



The young, when about a week old, have the eyes unopened, and are clothed in pure white 

 down ; bill dull leaden blue-black, llesliy-white at the base; feet pale yellow, claws black. 



September and October constitues the usual breeding season in Eastern Australia, but that 

 it must be sometimes of longer duration is proved by Mr. Thos. P. Austin finding recently 

 hatched young on the 25th August, 1909, the eggs probably being deposited in the first week in 

 August. 



Ninox peninsularis. 



NORTHERN WINKING OWL 



JVind.r pfiiiiimlaris, Salvad., Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen., Vol. VII. (1st Ser.), p. 99-2 (1875); Sliarpe, 

 Voy. H.M.S. Al.Tt, p. 11 (1.S84). 

 AnULT M.\LK. — LUi l/ir ailiiJt iiifili' ofUlsox CONSIVENs, Latliaiii, btif smaller, '/ip crti/rii/ s/reaks 

 tu llic ft'al/ifrs of the formii ck tuorr rn/unti-liro/iii mill iiot so iiy/! defined, vhile those on the breast 

 and abdoimu Jtace tJie former cli(-(ra<-ler rreu more aceeti/nated : "bill greenish-yelluw : feet yelloiv ; 

 iris i/ello>c" (McLennan). 7'o/al leni//h l-'rl inches, n-imj I'l-.',^ tail 5-7, bill V16, tarsus 1-J,5. 



Diiirihntion. — Cape ^'ork Peninsula, Northern Queensland. 



FyOIv an opportunity of describing this smaller northern foim, also its eggs, I am indebted 

 to Dr. \V. Macgillivray, of Broken Hill, South-western New South \\'ales, who k'indly 

 sent me for examination a skin of an adult male and a set of eggs collected for him by Mr. W. 

 McLennan, at Paira, Cape York Peninsula, Northern Queensland. Although specimens from 

 New South Wales have the streaks as a rule typically darker, others closely approach in colour 

 the northern form, differing only from it by the larger size. I do not consider Ninox pcniinulnris so 

 worthy of separation from N . coiiuivi'iis, as I do the North-western .\ustralian form, A^. otiidciifalis. 

 Relative to finding the nesting places of the Northern Winking Owl, I have e.xtracted the 

 following information from Mr. W. McLennan's notes, made while on Cape York Peninsula: — 

 " On the 6th August, 191 1, about four miles from Paira, I flushed Ninox pfiiimidarii iiom the 

 branches of a Moreton Bay .Vsh, and flushed another from a hollow in a tree close by. The 

 nesting place, which contained two eggs, was in a Moreton Bay .\sh, forty feet from the ground, 

 and was eighteen inches in diameter and three feet in depth. The bird that I Hushed from the 

 nest appeared to be the smaller of the two, and was probably the male. Five days later, in a 

 large pocket on Watadinia Creek, 1 flushed another Owl of tlie same species from the branches 

 of a Bloodwood, and its mate from a hollow in a big Tea-tree a few yards away. .\. .Sulphur- 

 crested Cockatoo flew from another hollow in the same tree. The Owl's nesting place, which 

 contained two fresh eggs, was forty feet from the ground, and was a foot in diameter by two feet 

 si.x inches in length. On the 26th August, 191 1, while returning from Peak Point on n:y way 

 home, I flushed Ninox pi-iiinsnlivis from the branches of a 'I"ea-tree, and its mate from a hollow 

 in the same tree. The nesting-place, which contained two eggs, was si.xty feet from the ground, 

 in a hollow two feet deep, and the entrance to it eight inches in diameter; the bottom of the 



