BUBO CAPENSIS. 



umber-brown at the points. Bill dark livid brown ; claws a horn colour, 

 liglitest towards base. Eyes bright orange yellow. 



Form, &c.— Head moderately large ; facial disc complete, cervical collar 

 distinctly defined. Egrets nearly over and about an inch from the outer 

 corners of the eyes, the feathers composing them narrow and pointed. Body- 

 bulky and densely covered with feathers and down. The wings, when 

 folded, reach to within an inch and a half of the tip of the tail, the third quill 

 feather in specimen the longest, the second and fourth equal and slightly 

 shorter, the first about an inch shorter than the second. The secondaries 

 about two-and-a-half inches shorter than the third primary quill feather. 

 Tail slightly rounded. Claws long, strong, arched, and pointed. Bill com- 

 pressed, curved from the base, and the upper mandible strongly hooked and 

 pointed. 



DIMENSIONS. 



In. Lin. 



Length of the tarsus 3 3 



outer toe 1 1 



middle toe 1 10 



inner toe 1 5 



liinder toe 10 



In. Lin. 

 Length from the point of the bill to 



the tip of the tail 22 8 



Length of the tail 9 



bill to the angle of the 



moiith 1 6 



wings wlien folded 15 



Colouring, &c. of the other sex not known. 



Levaillant asserts that Stri.v Bubo is a native of Southern Africa,* and I was disposed, when 

 1 first obtained the owl just described, to regard it as a young individual of that species. On 

 being informed, however, by an able zoologist, who had seen an adult specimen, that it differed 

 materially as regarded its marking from the European bird, I came to the resolution of viewing 

 it as distinct, and concluded that Levaillant must, once at least, have fallen into an error. 

 Since my return to England, I have endeavoured, but without success, to obtain for com- 

 parison a specimen of Strix Bubo of the same age as the bird here described. I shall there- 

 fore give the characters of one as drawn by Linnaus, and leave it to the reader to decide 

 whether the differences between it and the Cape bird are not greater than are commonly found 

 to exist between two individuals of one species whose ages are to be inferred as nearly the 

 same. He says, " the wings were dark, with reddish-brown spots ; feathers of the breast 

 biick-red, with a dark indented longitudinal stripe ; tail feathers still short, dark with roundish 

 red spots; feet reddish brown. "t 



Few specimens of this species have yet been procured, and none, as far as 1 know, at any great 

 distance from Cape Town. According to the statements of the Dutch settlers and the Hotten- 

 tots, single specimens are occasionally seen perched upon the tops of trees both about day-light 

 and dusk ; but from their being so vigilant and wary, they can rarely be approached so closely 

 as to be shot. They are said to feed upon moles, rats, mice, and small birds. 



* Oisscaux d'Afrique, toni. i. pnge 160. pi. 40. t Y.irreU's British Birds, vol. i. p. 110. 



