408 CORACIIFORMES 



CHAP. 



Granada and Venezuela, G. pumilum Brazil, G. nanum Chili and 

 Patagonia. 



Sceloglaux albifacies, the Laughing Owl of New Zealand, is 

 rufous-brown, with the middle of the feathers dark, and a few marks 

 of white and buff above ; the tail is barred with fulvous, the 

 fairly perfect facial discs exhibit radiating brown streaks ; the toes 

 are hairy. For an Owl this peculiar species has the head small, 

 the wings short, and the metatarsi long ; it strides along or hops 

 at a considerable rate on the ground, and flies only at night, utter- 

 ing a peculiar shrill laugh or a loud barking call-note. It is 

 fast becoming extinct in its bleak mountain -haunts, where it 

 conceals itself by day and also nests in dry crevices of rocky 

 gullies ; it lays from one to three eggs at considerable intervals, 

 if we may judge from captive specimens. The female is smaller 

 than the male, who occasionally incubates. As the Maori rat of 

 New Zealand is extinct, the food now consists of the introduced 

 Mus decumanus, with insects, birds, and so forth. 



In the genus Ninox the prevailing colours are grey, brown, 

 and rufous, relieved by a little black and white, the question of 

 dichromatism not being yet settled. The facial discs are some- 

 what imperfect. The thirty or more species extend from Mada- 

 gascar, India, and Ceylon to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and 

 the Solomon Islands, having their headquarters in the Moluccas 

 and Papuasia ; but, with the exception of Scops, there is perhaps 

 no group in the Family where the status of the members is more 

 doubtful. They are sometimes termed Hairy or Hawk-Owls, 

 though the true Hawk-Owl is Surnia ulula. N. scutulala, ranging 

 from India to Japan, Formosa, Ternate and Flores, frequents 

 forests and gardens, sallying forth at dusk, darting upon insects 

 from its perch on some dead branch, uttering a reiterated double 

 note, and laying its eggs on dried leaves in hollow trees. N. 

 strenua, N. connivens, and N. boobook are Australian species, of 

 which the first is a powerful bird with a hoarse, mournful voice, 

 mainly nocturnal, but wakeful and speedy in the daytime. It 

 frequents lonely forests and thick " brushes " on hills, being less 

 widely distributed than the more diurnal N. connivens and N. 

 loolook. The latter may be seen in sunlight capturing birds or 

 insects in the woods, but the note of " boobook," or " buck-buck," 

 from which it gets its native name, is only heard at night. The 

 colonists compare the cry with " cuckoo," and believe that the 



