case of Athene chiaradise. 3 



had taken from the nest were perfectly similar, and that all 

 had black eyes ; and both she and her father and brothers 

 repeated this assertion to Mr. Vallon when he met them 

 again in July last. We shall see the importance of this 

 assertion, as far as it can ba accepted, further on. 



Now it is well known that all the small Owls belonging to 

 the genera Athene, Nyctala, Surma, Glaucidium, and Scops, 

 which include species found in Europe, have yellow irides. 

 A singular exception, if proved, would be that of two non- 

 European species of Scops; according to Hodgson. Scops lettia 

 has yellow eyes when young, while the irides become brown 

 in old birds. I will merely remark that this is very much 

 against the rule. And in Scops elegans the iris is said to be 

 black, i. e. dark brown. In the larger Owls a few similar 

 exceptions in genera, in which the all but universal yellow 

 or orange coloration of the irides is notorious, may be here 

 mentioned. Thus, in the genus Asio two and perhaps three 

 species, amongst which is A. capensis, have brown eyes ; and 

 in the genus Bubo we find B. lacteus and B. shelleyi with 

 brown irides, and B. cinerascens with blue eyes. 



I will here mention a case which has quite recently come 

 to my knowledge, and which might have a closer interest for 

 us were it not decidedly teratological, for it concerns a 

 specimen of Athene noctua. This little Owl, an absolute 

 albino, with snowy-white feathers, pink cere and toes, 

 yellowish-white bill and claws, is interesting, because such 

 cases of albinism are rare amongst Raptores, both nocturnal 

 and diurnal. But the strange peculiarity of this specimen, 

 which was captured in the nest, with four normal nestlings, 

 at a place called Stagno, near Pisa, in July 11)01, and which 

 I have kept alive at the Museum since the end of January 

 last, is the colour of the irides ; these, instead of being pink — 

 i.e. colourless, as in all cases of total albinism, — arc of a 

 dark greenish grey, quite different from the dark brown of 

 the bird I have called A. chiaradice ; the borders of the eve- 

 lids are pink. 1 know of only one other instance of a per- 

 fectly white Civetta (A. noctua), now in a private collection 

 at Leghorn, but Mr. A. Carreras, an excellent observer and 



n 2 



