THE IBIS. 



EIGHTH SERIES. 



No. IX. JANUARY 1903. 



I. — The strange case of Athene chiaradiae. 

 By Henry Hillyeh Giglioli, H.M.B.O.U., &c. &e. 



(Plate I.) 



In May 1900 I published a short descriptive note on a 

 singular specimen of a small Owl belonging to the genus 

 Athene, which I had received alive from my friend Comm. 

 Emidio Chiaradia, M.P.* The bird had been captured in 

 a nest in a loose stonewall, about sixty metres from a casera 

 or malga | at Pizzocco on the Prealps of Friuli, at an eleva- 

 tion of 1003 metres. Pizzocco is not far from Caneva di 

 Sacile, and is laid down on the Italian Military Ordnance 

 Map of the province of Belluno in the lower right corner; 

 the locality is, however, within the province of Udine (Friuli 

 proper). I owe these minute and precise indications and 

 many more, as will be seen further on, to my friend Signor 

 Graziano Vallon, of Udine, who, being an enthusiastic and 

 excellent ornithologist, took the case in hand at once, and, 

 after residing in and carefully exploring the locality for 



* II. II. Giglioli, "Intorno ad una presunta nuov.a specie di Athene 

 trovata in Italia," in ' Avicula,' iv. fuse. -!9-o0, p. ~>1 (Siena, 19Uu). 

 Reprinted in 'Ornis,' xi. p. 237 (Paris, 1901). 



t In the Friulian Alps malga or casei'a is a rude low hut with loose 

 stone walls and a high-peaked thatched roof, ft is the residence of the 

 shepherd or ma/yfiere, who sleeps there with his family uu hay in a loft, 

 each person rolled in a sack. 



SEK. VIII. — VOL. 111. B 



