264 MR. P. L. SCLATER ON SOME NEW OR 



rufis marginatis ; rectricibus vittis quinque et altera terminali latiore supra pallide 

 rufis, subtus magis albidis apparentibus transfasciatis : facie, loris, mento et plumis 

 supra-ocularibus albis : subtus pure album, rufescente mixtum, plumarum termina- 

 tionibus latis interdum etiam scapis saturate brunneis ; tibiis et tarsorum parte supe- 

 riore rufis, horum parte inferiore albis : rostri plumbei apice flavo, pedibus fuscis. 

 Long, tota 15-0, alae 110, caudae 6-5, tarsi 1-9. 



The name of this Owl was inserted in the List of Specimens of Accipitres in the 

 Collection of the British Museum published in 1848 ; but no description of it has yet 

 appeared. The type in the British Museum is immature, and nearly agrees with one in 

 my own collection. Mr. Gurney's specimen, from which my description is taken, 

 appears to be nearly adult. All these three examples were received in collections from 

 Bogota, and they are the only individuals of this species that I have yet met with. The 

 face of this bird is white ; the head above brownish-black outside, with the bases of the 

 feathers bright rufous. The whole upper surface is brownish-black varied with this 

 rufous colouring, every feather being crossed with a broad subterminal band of rufous, 

 sometimes with a second, and these bands being occasionally incomplete in the middle 

 across the shaft. The primaries and secondaries are marked externally with rather 

 square-shaped rufous spots, four or five in number. The tail has five cross-bands 

 besides the terminal one formed in the same way, which bands appear whitish on the 

 lower surface. Below, the colouring is creamy-white tinged with pale rufous, the 

 breast-feathers, particularly on the sides, having broad terminations of black-brown, the 

 belly-feathers narrower terminations and also lateral margins of the same colour. The 

 tarsi are creamy-white with a yellowish tinge in both my specimens, more nearly pure 

 white in that in the British Museum ; they are thickly feathered down to the fissure of 

 the toes. The form is that of other South American Syrnia, the fourth and fifth wing- 

 feathers being equal and longest, only slightly exceeding the third. The specimen 

 which I take for the younger bird only differs in having the head varied like the back, 

 and being generally more rufous. 



The other American species of this genus of which I have seen specimens are : — 



1. Syrnium hylophilum (Temm. PI. Col. 373), from Brazil. Mus. Brit, et Acad. 

 Philadelph. 



2. Syrnium rufipes (King, Zool. Journ. iii. 426), from Tierra del Fuego. Mus. Brit. 

 Perhaps the same as the Chilian species figured by Des Murs as Ulula fasciata, Icon. 

 Orn. pi. 37. 



3. Syrnium virgatum, Cass. (Journ. Ac. Phil. vol. ii.) {S. squamulatum, Bp. ; S. zono- 

 cercum, G. R. Gray), from S. Mexico and Central America. 



4. Syrnium polygrammicum, G. R. Gray in Mus. Brit, ex Brasil. An undescribed 

 species very nearly allied to the last. 



