44 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



yellow, spotted with small arrow-head-shaped marks of a 

 dark-brown ; on the feet, and half-way up the le^s, short, stiff, 

 yellowish hairs. Facial disk white, tinted with vinaceous, 

 darkest at the inner angle of the eye, and surrounded with a 

 circle of dark-brown, approaching to black, on the lower half. 

 Length, 16" : wing, 12" ; tail, 5" 6". 



I cannot bring myself to consider this bird as a mere variety of the 

 European 5". i^/ammecf. 1 have shot refuted Jlammea in Ceylon, in 

 Egypt. Greece. England, and here, and have seen specimens— indeed, 

 have them before me while I write— from Europe, England, India, 

 two species from the Cape, S. Flammea and J. Capensis, and the 

 Australian S. Tersonata. I look upon them all as distinct, though 

 as closely related to each other as the hlack crows. There is as much 

 difference between them, and I therefore adopt Mr. Blyth's name 

 Jffinis for our Cape bird. Strix Affinis is common all over the colony, 

 breeding in the roof of nearly every farm-house that I have entered. 

 In Mr. Fry's fir-trees, a pair or two may be found at any time. They 

 occupy the same perch for days together, the ground below being 

 covered with their pellets. On examining these, they wiU be found to 

 consist almost entirely of the bones of mice — once only have I found 

 the skull of a bird. 



Eggs, two to four in number, pure white, not shining : axis, 1" T" ; 

 diam., 1" -1'". 



66. Strix Capensis, Smith, Zooi. s. Af, pi. 45. 



Upper parts dark -brown ; on each feather a white spear- 

 shaped spot, larger and more distinctly marked as they near 

 the tail. Shoulders and inside of wings orange, spotted 

 with brown. Sides of neck and under parts pale, reddish- 

 orange, each feather with a light-brown, arrow-headed spot 

 on its lip. Facial disk vinaceous near the eye, brownish- 

 black, surrounded by a ring of white feathers, tipped with 

 brown. Tail paler above ; here and there barred with brown 

 below, nearly white. Length, 17" ; wing, 13|" ; tail, 5". 



Found about Table Mountain (Smith), from which locality I have 

 also obtained one pair ; but the species must be very rare, as but few 

 other examples have occurred to me. 



Mr. Atmore writes : " Blanco, May 25th, 1864. A boy reports an 

 owl's nest in a vley near this. It was the of this nest probably that 

 Tom saw in the clutches of the crested eagle. 26th : Have visited the 

 owl's nest and shot the d (Strix Capensis), found three large young 

 ones in the nest just getting quill-feathers ; so they breed early. It is 

 not a rare bird here, but difficult to raise. It inhabits the wide palmiet 

 vleys." Mr. Ayres has procured it in Natal. — Ibis 1859, p. 28. 



