case of Athene chiaradise. 9 



less still a monstrosity, of A. noctua, I mooted the only 

 hypothesis left me and named it, with due caution, A. cfiia- 

 radice, dedicating it to the friend who had given it to me. 

 To explain its isolated position in the genus Athene, to 

 which it evidently belongs, and its extreme rarity, I may 

 state that A. noctua is one of the commonest and best-known 

 birds in Italy, and that no one had before mentioned the 

 occurrence of black-eyed specimens in this country or else- 

 where. I finally started the notion that my specimen 

 might be one of the last of a species on the verge of 

 extinction. Similar cases are known amongst birds ; for 

 have we not within the Italian region Sitta tuhiteheadi, 

 utterly distinct, singularly isolated, and evidently on the 

 verge of extinction ? 



Of course I was most anxious to learn more about A. chia- 

 radice, and to secure, if possible, more specimens. Thus I 

 closed my short paper in ' Avicula ' with a warm appeal to 

 my fellow ornithologists in Italy, and more especially to 

 those residing in Friuli. I knew beforehand that there, at 

 least, my appeal would not be in vain, for 1 have had the 

 good fortune to know and appreciate Mr. Vallon, of Udinc, 

 for the last twenty years. Mr. Vallon responded nobly to 

 the call, and the day after reading my paper (2 1th June, 

 1900) started from Udine for Caneva di Sacile and succeeded 

 (but not without difficulty, for the shoemaker, whom he easily 

 found, knew neither the name nor the residence of the little 

 shepherd-girl from whom he had bought the black-eyed 

 Civetta, and poor Coram. Chiaradia had been laid up with a 

 stroke of paralysis) in tracing back my specimen of A. chia- 

 radice to the exact locality of its birth and in correcting some 

 details regarding its capture. He did not, however, succeed 

 in getting more specimens, although he scoured the locality 

 and the season was the right one. The mountaineers of 

 Pizzocco told him, however, that they knew well the kind 

 of Civetta he sought, and that it was not rare in that 

 locality, where it breeds, and they promised to let him 

 know when a nest was found — assertions which, with one 

 exception, can only be received cum //ratio salis. Nothing 



