76 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



The breeding season of this species commences in April, and con- 

 tinues throughout that and the following month. A hole in an old 

 wall, or a cleft among rocks, is generally chosen by the bird as a site 

 for its eggs, no regular nest being made. Hollows in old trees are 

 also used for the purpose, and the Roman ruins which abound in some 

 parts of Tunisia are in special favour as breeding haunts of the 

 species. 



The number of eggs laid varies from three to five, their colour is 

 pure white, and their average measurements about 32 x 28 mm. 



Although no doubt originally imported into England from abroad, 

 the Little Owl seems now to have every right to rank as a British 

 bird, numbers of the species existing in a perfectly wild state in various 

 parts of the country. 



Under the name of Athene chiaradicB, Prof. Giglioli has recently 

 described as a new species a Little Owl which appears to vary from 

 the ordinary type of C. noctua in having dark brown instead of yellow 

 irides, and in being somewhat differently plumaged, as well as slightly 

 smaller (Avicula, 1900, pp. 57-60). The type of A. chiaradice, a male, 

 was obtained, as a nestling, in July, 1899, at Pizzocco, in the Friulian 

 Alps, from whence other similar examples have since been procured. 

 These specimens, some of which, both living and dead, I have myself 

 examined, have all been obtained as nestlings at various times, together 

 with co-nestlings of undoubted C. noctua with the usual yellow irides, 

 the last nest, taken in July, 1902, containing tico dark-eyed and three 

 yellow-eyed birds. On this occasion the two parent birds were also 

 captured, both of them having yellow irides, and being apparently 

 inseparable from C. noctua, although neither were perfectly typical 

 examples of that species, but varied slightly from it, each in a dif- 

 ferent way. 



A full and detailed account of this strange and interesting discovery 

 has been published by Prof. Giglioli {Ibis, 1903, pp. 1-18 and pp. 137- 

 138), and papers on the subject have also been written by Prof. 

 Martorelli (Att. Soc. Ital. Sc. Nat. xl, Milan, 1902), and by Signor 

 Vallon (Att. Ace. di Udine, ser. 3, viii, Udine, 1901). The case is no 

 doubt a most singular and highly interesting one. Considering all 

 the circumstances connected with it, and putting aside as untenable 

 the theory of hybridism being in any waj' responsible for it, the 

 most natural conclusion we can come to regarding these examples of 

 so-called A. chiaradict appears to be that they arc but highly abnormal 



