Case of Athene cliiaradiae. 17 



Athene, of sheer necessity the connubium cannot but occur 

 with a species of such very distinct genera as Nyctala, 

 Scops, and possibly Glaucidium; now A. chiaradice is purely 

 and simply an Athene, and shews no trace whatever of the 

 characters, either specific or generic, of any of the forms 

 quoted above. As to a teratological or pathological origin, 

 a mere glance at one of the black-eyed Civette will 

 shew that they cannot owe their origin to such a cause. 

 Besides in such cases, as again in hybrids, the form 

 produced varies, and in these black-eyed descendants of 

 A. noctua the specimens thus far examined are perfectly 

 alike. The only instance in which we find perfect simi- 

 larity in pathological descendants is in cases of absolute 

 albinism or melanism, or, to put it better, in monocroic 

 varieties. 



My friend Prof. Martorelli, in his elaborate paper quoted 

 above, fully agrees with me in excluding the possibility of 

 a hybrid origin for the form I have called A. chiaradice ; but 

 comes to the conclusion that the two specimens known when 

 he wrote are merely abnormal individuals of A. noctua. He 

 comes to such a conclusion by starting from a supposed dif- 

 ference in the two specimens, which does not exist, being 

 merely based on a slight omission in my first description of the 

 peculiar characters of the remiges and rectrices in the type 

 specimen of the black-eyed Civetta; and more especially by 

 attributing far too great importance to the traces shewing that 

 the longitudinal whitish bands on those feathers are derived 

 from spots and blotches ; this is a natural consequence of an 

 immediate descent from A. noctua, in which such light 

 spots and blotches, forming transverse bands on the wing 

 and tail-feathers, exist. My friend Prof. Martorelli is an 

 able and ardent student of the pigmentation of feathers ; 

 he has published remarkable and peculiar views on the sub- 

 ject, and is an admirer of Bohn and his theories on the 

 " evolution du pigment." 



Prof. Martorelli sums up the results of his investigation 

 with the following words : — " The examination of this second 

 specimen, on account of its diversity from the first one 



SER. VIII. — vol. in. c 



