10 Dr. IT. H. Giglioli— The strange 



daunted by liis previous failure, early in July of the following 

 year Mr. Vallon was again on the spot, and on the 7th of 

 that month his pains were rewarded by the capture of a 

 second specimen of the peculiar black-eyed Civetta. It was 

 taken from the nest in a cavity of a rocky cliff, about 100 

 metres from the maty a of Pizzocco, at an elevation of about 

 ] 100 metres, and thus in close proximity to the wall in which 

 the first specimen of A. chiaradice was got two years before. 

 It was no easy task to get at the youngsters, for several big 

 stone blocks had to be moved ; they lay on the bare rock. 

 But Avhat astonished Mr. Vallon was to find in the same 

 nest from which he had taken the small black-eyed Civetta, 

 three nestlings with the pale yellow hides of the young 

 A. noctua, covered, moreover, with the reddish-brown down 

 and growing feathers of that well-known species. The 

 nestling A. chiaradice, still in down, with feathers partially 

 emerging, has been minutely described by Mr. Vallon in his 

 first paper, noticed further on ; it is very different. 



Mr. Vallon started several ingenious hypotheses to 

 explain the presence of an A. chiaradice in the nest of an 

 A. noctua ; but these have been withdrawn, as we now know 

 that thus far such is the ordinary case ! Mr. Vallon, and a 

 bird-catcher who was with him, sought without success to 

 capture the parent birds. He published shortly after two 

 interesting and complete accounts of the case and of the 

 results of his excursions to Pizzocco*. 



The young A. chiaradice and its three ordinary co-nestlings 

 were taken to Udine and carefully reared. In the following 

 October, when fully fledged, Mr. Vallon took the black-eyed 

 Civetta and one of its brothers on a round of visits; thus 

 the two living small Owls, so unlike each other and yet 

 belonging to the same nest, were carefully inspected in suc- 

 cession by Prof. MartoreUi at Milan, Count Salvadori at 

 Turin, and myself at Florence. 1 had a certain advantage over 



* G. Vallon, " Nota intorno alia nuova specie di Civetta scoperta nel 

 Friuli," in Atti Accad. di Udine, ser. 3, viii. seduta 20 luglio 1901 

 (Udine, 1901). — Id. " Uelier Athene chiaradice, Giglioli, in Friaul," in Orn. 

 Jahrb. xii. p. 217 (Hallein, 1901). 



