524 BIRDS or AUSTRALIA. 



Family STRIGID-ffi. 



Genus SCELOGLAUX, Kaup. 



But one species of this highly curious form is at present 

 known, 



Sp. 1. SCELOGLAUX ALBIFACIES. 



Wekau. 



Athene albifacies, G. R. Gray, Voy. of Ereb. and Terr. Birds, p. 2. 

 Sceloglaux albifacies, Kaup. — G. R. Gray, Cat. of Gen. and Subgen. 

 of Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 8. 



Sceloglaux albifacies, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, Supplement, 

 pi. 



This bird is one of the many strange inhabitants of our 

 antipodal country New Zealand. An Owl it unquestionably 

 is, but how widely does it differ from every other member of 

 its family ! Its prominent bill, swollen nostrils, and small 

 head are characters as much accipitrine as strigine ; its short 

 and feeble wings indicate that its powers of flight are limited, 

 while its lengthened legs and abbreviated toes would appear 

 to have been given to afford it a compensating increase of pro- 

 gression over the ground. On what does this bird live? 

 There are no indigenous small quadrupeds in the country upon 

 which we might infer, from its structure and what we know of 

 the economy of other terrestrial Owls (such as the Burrow- 

 ing Owl of North America, Burnia cunicularia), it would feed. 

 Does it partially feed on the larvae of such Lepidoptera as 

 Ilepialus virescens, so subject to the attack of that singular 

 fungus the Sphceria Robertsi"^ It would indeed be interest- 

 ing to ascertain how it maintains existence. 



Of this very rare and singular bird only two examples are 

 known to me : of these one is in the British Museum, the 

 other in the collection of J. H. Gurney, Esq., a gentleman 



