Mr. Layard's * Birds of South Africa.' 149 



A third African sj)ccies of tlie genus Huhua is H. cinerascens 

 (Guerin, Rev. Zool. 1843, p. 321). 



This Owl was first discovered in Abyssinia, but was subse- 

 quently obtained on the Niger by the late Dr. Baikie j and a 

 specimen is now living in the menagerie of the Zoological So- 

 ciety, which was brought from West Africa, though the exact 

 locality whence it was procured is unknown. 



This species much resembles the two preceding in its general 

 coloration, but it wants the conspicuous black crescent which 

 they both exhibit on the sides of the disk. In size it is much 

 smaller than H. lactea, and barely equals Bubo maculosus. 



A fourth African species of the same genus, of about the 

 same size as H. cinerascens, but of a much less sombre colora- 

 tion, is the West-African H. fasciolata (Temm.) {Bubo poensis, 

 Fraser) *, a specimen of which is also living in the Zoological 

 Gardens, and was figured in the " Proceedings " of the Society 

 for 1863 (pi. xxxiii.) ; since that time, however, the yellow 

 tints of its plumage appear to me to have assumed a richer and 

 deeper tinge than they then possessed. 



60. Ephialtes CAPENSis (A.Smith). South- African Scops - 

 Owl. 



Dr. Kaup (Trans. Zool. Soc. iv. p. 223), under the name 

 of Scops latipennis (Licht.), and Dr. Hartlaub (Orn. Westafr. 

 p. 20) treat this species as distinct from E.senegalensis (Swains.), 

 with which Mr. Layard identifies it. I regret that I am unable 

 to offer an opinion on the point, not having had an opportunity 

 of comparing the two races. 



61. Otus leucotis (Temm.). African White-eared Owl. 



A pair of these Owls from the Gambia lived for a short time 

 in the menagerie of the Zoological Society of London ; and I 

 may here transcribe a note which I made after carefully ob- 



* [The specific name of Mr. Fraser seems to us to possess unquestiou- 

 able priority. The bird was described by him at a meeting of the Zoo- 

 logical Society on the 2oth January, 1853, and the description was printed 

 in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History ' for February 1855 

 (p. 13G). Tomminck's name was not " published'' (so far as we know) 

 till Dr. Ilartlaub gave utterance to it in the Si-ptiinher "Ileft" of the 

 '.Iom*nal fiir Ornithologie ' for the same year (p. 354). — Ed.] 



