JS'iNOx. 27 



[Mr. G-. E. Gray in his "Hand-list of Birds"* places Gould's 

 name of N. rufa, as a synonym of JSL sfrenua, in which he is 

 followed by Dr. Sharpc in the Catalogue of Birds in the British 

 Museum. t N. riifa is, however, a good and distinct species. 

 Closely allied, if not identical with it, is N. humeralis. of 

 Hombron and Jacquinot. Judging by a single specimen in the 

 collection from North Australia, where the type of N. rufa, was 

 obtained by Gilbert, it may be distinguished i'rom JST. humeralis, 

 by its paler and more numerously barred upper surface, its ear- 

 coverts being brown indistinctly streaked with white, instead of 

 entirely black ; the barrings on the breast sandy rufous and 

 without any conterminous lines of dark brown, and the tail- 

 feathers being crossed with thirteen pale brown bars, instead of 

 eight as in N. humeralis. Total length 19"25 inches, wing l-l'S, 

 tail 9'75, bill TOS, tarsiis 2. Gould's figure, which is not a good 

 one, of jY". rvfa, however, exhibits the same number of cross-bars 

 on the exposed portion of the under surface of the tail feathers 

 as are found in N. humeralis, and the wing measurement in the 

 description is almost the same as that given by Dr. Sharpe of the 

 latter species. Should subsequent reseai'ch prove these two birds 

 alike, which I have here kept distinct, Hombron and Jacquinot's 

 name of iV. humeralis, must rank as a synonym of Gould's older 

 name of iV. n(^<.] 



10, Ninox humeralis. 



Cheveche a epaulettes, Homhr. e( Jacq., Voy. Pol. SiuL, Atlas, pi. 4 

 fig. i (1843). 



Athene humeralis (Homhr. et Jacq. J Bona}]. Conxj). Av. torn, i, p. 40 

 (1850) ; Jacq. et Pucheran, Voy. Pole SiuL, ZooL, torn, iii, p. 53 

 (1853) ; Strkkl. Orn. Syn., p. 174 (1855) ; Gray, Proc. ZooL b'oc, 

 1858, pp. 170, 189; id. Cat. Bds., New Gitiii., pp. 17, 54 (1859); 

 Wall. Ibis, 1868, p. 24. 



leraglaux humeralis, Kaup., Contr. Orn., 1852, p. 109; id. Trans. 

 Zool. Soc, vol. iv, p. 221 (1862). 



Rhabdoglaux humeralis, Bonap. Rev. et. Mag. de Zool., 1854, p. 543. 



Spiloglaux humeralis, Sclater, Journ. Proc. Linn. Soc, vol. ii, p. 155 

 (1858). 



Noctua humeralis, Finsch, New Gtdn., p. 156 (1865). 



Ninox humeralis, Sharpe, Ibis, 1875, p. 258 ; id. Cat. Bds., Brit. Mns., 

 vol. ii, p. 180 (1875); Salrad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen., vol. xii, p. 41 

 (1878) ; id. Orn. Pap. et Moliicc, vol. i, p. 84 (1880) ; Dc Vis, 

 Ann. Bep. Brit. New. Gain., App. E.E., p. 99 (1894). 



Ninox unilulata, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W., vol. iii, p. 24 

 (1879). 



* Graj- Hand-list Bds., vol. i, p. 40 (1SG9). 

 t Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., vol. ii, p. 179 (1875). 



