AFRICAN PASSERINE OWL. 131 



fifth quills are longest, and nearly of equal length, 

 although the last is sometimes rather shorter, as 

 in this species, than the two preceding ; and these 

 three are the only ones with a sinuated outer web, 

 excepting the second, the sudden broadness of which 

 is only at its very hase. 



The total length of the specimen hefore us may 

 be taken at eight inches, supposing the head is 

 straightened. The upper plumage is rufous brown, 

 or ferruginous, brightest on the head, and especially 

 between the shoulders. The whole upper part of 

 the head is thickly covered with round white dots, 

 edged with black ; and a few of these spots, but 

 larger, are scattered on the back, rump, and shoulder 

 wing-covers ; the lesser covers have a short row of 

 much larger white spots, and there is another row 

 on the tips of the greater covers, these latter having 

 also a ferruginous spot in the middle ; the spurious 

 wings are without spots. The quills are crossed by 

 six distinct well-defined blackish bars, which above 

 are nearly of the same breadth as the rufous inter- 

 vals which separate them, but they are much nar- 

 rower on their under surface, and leave the base of 

 the inner webs entirely ferruginous ; this last colour 

 also, but much darker, spreads over the inner wing- 

 covers, the tips of the greater ones only being marked 

 with a terminal tear-shaped spot. The white sca- 

 pular band is margined above by a row of large 

 white spots, ringed with black. Tail rather length- 

 ened, nearly even, and blackish, each feather having 

 seven pair of transverse white spots, the outer ones 



