RAPTORES. 71 



Sp. 34. HIERACOGLAUX CONNIVENS. 

 Winking Owl. 



Falco connivens, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. 12. 



Buteo connivens, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., torn. iv. p. 481. 



Noctua frontata, Less. Traite d'Orn. p. 106. 



Athene frontata, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Bu-ds, vol. i. p. 35, Athene, 



sp. 34. 

 leraglaux connivens, Kaup, Mon. Strig. in Jard. Cont. to Orn., 1852, 



p. 109. 

 Athene'^ fortis, Gould, in Proc. of Zool. Soe., part v. p. 141. 

 Goora-a-gancj, Aborigines of New South Wales. 

 Wool-boo- gle, Aborigines of the mountain district of Western Australia. 



Athene coniiivens, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL vol i. pi. 34. 



This is a far more common species than either of the two 

 last described ; it is also much less in size and very different 

 in colour ; its range appears to extend over the whole of the 

 southern coast of Australia. I have received examples from 

 Western Australia, Victoria, and nearly every part of New- 

 South Wales ; specimens from these distant localities differ a 

 little in their plumage, those obtained in the West being rather 

 lighter in colour, and having the markings less clear and 

 defined, than those from the eastern portion of the country. 

 There is no difference in the plumage of the sexes ; but the 

 female is somewhat the larger in size. 



Brushes, wooded gullies, and the sides of creeks are its 

 favourite places of resort ; it is consequently not so restricted 

 in the localities it chooses as the Hieracoglaux strenuus, which 

 I have never known to leave the brushes. It sallies forth 

 early in the evening, and even flies with perfect use of vision 

 during the mid-day sun, when roused and driven from the 

 trees upon which it has been sleeping. I have frequently 

 observed it in the daytime among the thick branches of the 

 CasiiariiKE which border the creeks. Gilbert procured an egg 

 of this species in Western Australia ; it w^as pure white, some- 



