STHl.X. 313 



With a specimen in the tlesli presented to the Trustees of the Australian Museum by Miss 

 Eunice Bond, ot StuniuLjtijii, Lockhart, New South Wales, in July, igoc;, the following; note 

 was received : — " This ( )\vl was sittin>,' on the bouijh of a tree early in tlie afternoon, and about 

 eight 'Jackasses' (iJanio uij:,^) were lau^'hing round it; it fell on theground, and the 'Jackasses' 

 kept swooping down and pecking it, and made it bleed at the beak', so we picked it up and 

 lirought it inside the house, but it died in a few minutes. These Owls are lare here, my father 

 has only seen one once before." 



Mr. G. .A. Keartland has kindly favoured me with the following notes from Melbourne, 

 \'ictoria: — "The Delicate Owl (Strix dcUcatnla) may be found in almost every part of Australia, 

 but these birds are most numerous near rivers and creeks, where they breed in the hollow limbs 

 of the large trees. .At Werribee, Victoria, I found a pair nesting in a hollow dtsnariiia, no doubt 

 owing to the absence of large timber. Mr. Jas. I". Field secured a clutch of their eggs near 

 Alice Springs, whilst Mr. Alex. Ross forwarded me others from Crown Point, Central Australia. 

 On the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, and near the Fitzroy River, 

 North-western .Australia, they are very numerous, probably owing to the presence of large 

 numbers of small marsupials, besides rats and mice. Whenever mice make their appearance in 

 e.\ceptionally large numbers in X'ictoria, the Delicate ( )wl seems to follow them, but when the 

 mice disappear many of the Owls may be seen lying about dead and in a \ery lean condition, 

 some little better th^vn skeletons." 



Dr. Ernest D'Ombrain kindly sends me the following notes : — " In the Casterton District, 

 \'ictoria, numbers of .S7;7.\ dclicatida, dying or dead, were found during the big drought time in 

 the Mallee country. 'J'his is curious, for although the birds were emaciated both internally and 

 externally, mice, etc., were plentiful in this district. I sent you a photograph of this species, and 

 1 enclose another of a pair of young in the down, '["his Owl makes a hissing sound, and like the 

 Winking Owl uses the boles of trees and large branches with hollows in for a camping as we 

 as nesting site. Into these hollows they return at dawn with a rabbit or other food, and will feed 

 on it there in ' the dim-lit interior ' during day time. The \ery young have eyes like a newly 

 born puppy, inky in appearance, growing to a deeper black as they grow up. The birds snap 

 loudly at one with their shatp hoolced bills, and at the same time with rutfied feathers and wings 

 raised, and all the time the head and face are kept moving in a circular manner. The average 

 clutch of eggs is three, but !\Ir. \\. McLennan on one occasion found one of five." 



Mr. \V. Wliite, of the Reedbeds, South Australia, wrote me as follows under date 4th June, 

 1895: — '• Vou will be pleased to hear that one of the large hollow lof;s I put up in a Gum- 

 tree on my son's property is now tenanted by Strix dcUcatiila. The family Strigid.t; are very 

 useful birds, well worth protecting and providing for, as is also Datc/o ;,'',;'''-'• The hole the • >wl 

 occupies was last season used by Dacclo "ii^as, who brought out young. It is close to the back of 

 the house, and has been occupied by the Owls for some months, and both they and the 'Jackasses' 

 are there every evening, but I do not think the latter breed there now, as they have taken to 

 another log I put up some hundred yards distant. If any one goes near the tree the Owl 

 occupies, it makes straight for them. I have now got three Strix didicatida to come regularly 

 twice a day for meat I place on a piece of board for them, close to the house. Sinox boohook also 

 comes regularly for his supper in the shape of a piece of meat, a mouse, sparrow, part of a rat, 

 or anything I may have, for he is not very particular provided it is fresii and not all fat." 



For the purposes of breeding it resorts to a hole in a tree, the eggs being deposited on the 

 decaying wood usually found in these cavities. Sometimes they are placed upon ejected pellets 

 of fur, etc., or the latter may be placed around them. 



The eggs are usually tiiree or four in number for a sitting, but the late Mr. K. H. Bennett 

 records finding six eggs in nests on two occasions. Typically they are a thick oval in form, 

 dull white, the shell being rather coarse grained but lustrous. 



