BFBO ASCALAPHFS 77 



individnals of C. nncfiia, the proGjeny of parents themselves aberrant, 

 thoucfh less divergent, from the usual type. What cause or combi- 

 nation of causes may have brought about so intensified a modification 

 of the normal form it is difficult, not to say impossible, to tell. A 

 derangement in the vascular system for the distribution of pigment 

 may account for the heterochrosh, but whatever may be its explana- 

 tion, the fact is none the less a most remarkable one, and constitutes a 

 highly interesting problem in Natural History. 



Prof. Giglioli also mentions two cases of albinism in the Little 

 Owl which had come under his notice. In one the irides, instead 

 of being pink {i.e., devoid of pigment, as in most cases of total 

 albinism), were of a darkish greenish-grey colour; the entire plumage 

 was snowy white, except the middle portion of the tail-feathers, and 

 those round the bill, which were tinged with yellow, and the bases 

 of the body and inner wing-feathers, which were all deeply tinged 

 with vinaceous rose colour. This specimen, which T have myself had 

 the pleasure of examining, is preserved in the Italian collection of 

 the Eoyal Zoological Museum of Florence. 



BUBO ASCALRPHOS, Savigny. 



EGYPTIAN EAGLE-OWL. 



Bubo ascalaphus, Savigny, Syst. Ois. de I'Egypte, dc. p. 50, pi. v. (1810) ; 



Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. ii, p. 24 ; Eoenig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 163 ; 



id. J. f. 0. 1892, p. 351 ; Whitaker, Ibis, 1898, p. 126. 

 Ascalaphia savignyi, Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 102 (1867). 

 B. ascalaphus barbarus, Erlanger, J. f. 0. 1898, p. 142. 



Description. — Adult male, autumn, from North Tunisia. 



Facial disc rufous-brown ; chin and a band below the ruff white ; bristles 

 surrounding the bill white, tipped with black ; ruff rufous-brown, fringed 

 with black ; upper parts generally rufous-buff mottled and streaked with 

 blackish-brown, the crown, rather short ear-tufts, scapulars and wing-coverts 

 being darkest, and the nape and rump lightest : tail irregularly barred with 

 blackish- brown ; wings also conspicuously barred with same colour; breast 

 warm rufous-buff, striped with large blackish streaks, surrounded by paler 

 spots ; abdomen and rest of under parts warm rufous-buff, the terminal 

 portion of most of the feathers being whitish and barred with fine narrow 

 brown markings ; feet thickly feathered down to the claws. 



