SCO MR. J. H. GURNEY ON HUHUA. NIPALENSIS. [NoV. 18, 



island are of smaller size than those from other localities, and pro- 

 posed for them the subspecific designation of " orientaJis minor ;" but 

 in his ' Eeview,' subsequently published, he stated at p. 5 of the 

 "Aves Noctuae" that this small race also inhabits Borneo and the 

 Malay peninsula, and this is somewhat corroborated by the circum- 

 stance of a S})ecinien from Noith-west Borneo, recorded by Mr. 

 Sharpe in P. Z. S. 18/9, p. 245, agreeing in its wing-measurement 

 with the smaller rather than with the larger race. On the other 

 hand two individuals from the Barison Mountains in Sumatra, which 

 are preserved in the Norwich Museum, agree in their dimensions 

 with the larger form. 



The African species which appear to belong, more or less closely, 

 to the same group as the two Asiatic Owls above referred to are the 

 following : — 



HuHUA POENSis (Fraser), figured by Dr. Sclater, P. Z. S. 1863, 

 pi. 33, and by Mr. Sharpe, Ibis, 1869, pi. 4. — Hub. Guinea, ex- 

 tending southward to the E. Gaboon, and also occuring in Fernando 

 Po. 



II. LACTEA (Temm.), figured by Temminck in PI. Col. pi. 4. — 

 Hab. Most of the forest-regions of Africa, south of the 20th degree 

 of north latitude. 



]\Ir. Sharpe in his Catalogiie of Striges, p. 3.5, has shown, I think, 

 satisfactorily that the southern specimens of this Owl, for which 

 the subspecific appellation o( " ven-emnvi " was proposed by Bona- 

 parte, are not really separable from the typical //. lactea, which 

 was originally described from an example obtained in Senegal. I 

 mention this, as I expressed a contrary opinion in the ' Ibis,' 1868, 

 p. 148. 



H. ciNERAsCENS (Gue'r.), figured by Des Murs in the Zoology 

 to Lefebvre's 'Voyage en Abyssinie,' pi. 4. — Hab. Between about 

 the 4th and 16th degrees of north latitude. I suspect, however, 

 that the Owl recorded by Du Bocage in the ' Ornithologie d' An- 

 gola,' p. 58, as "un male adulte du B. maculosus regu du Humba, 

 Vindication 'iris brun ' ecrite de la main de ]\I. d'Anchieta," may 

 in fact have been an example of H. cinerascens, which, in that 

 case, ranges much further south than the limits above noted. 



Hiihxia cinerascens agrees with H. 7iipalensis, H. orientalis, H. 

 poensis, and H. lacteus, in having a dark brown iris ; but it differs 

 from them in having the bill black, with the tip only of a yellowish 

 horn-colour, instead of the whole bill being horn-yellow. It 

 is also worthy of remark that the upper eyelid is more or less 

 pink and bare of feathers in all the above-named species except 

 in H. orientalis, in which the eyelid has been recorded as yellow by 

 Mr. Davison in ' Stray Feathers,' vol. vi. p. 31. 



In plumage H. cinerascens very closely resembles Bubo macu- 

 losus, and though the dimensions of the s{)ecimens of H. cinerascens 

 which I have examined are slightly less than those of B. maculosus, 

 it is not easy to distinguish the former in the skin from the smaller 



