collected in Dutch Neio Guinea. 257 



The type-specimen o£ this remarkable species was described 

 by Bonaparte from Triton Bay in South-west New Guinea, 

 about 150 miles west of the Mimika River. Until the 

 present collection arrived the species was not represented in 

 the British Museum, the two specimens named N. tlieomaclia 

 by Sharpe having been wrongly identified. The two birds 

 in question were collected by A. Goldie in the Astrolabe 

 Mountains, and received by the Museum in 1882 and 1883 

 respectively. They are referable to two distinct species, 

 Adz. : — 



1. Ninox terricolor Ramsay, Pr. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. iv. 

 p. 466 (1879) [type from Goldie River] ; Salvad. Orn. Pap. 

 iii. p. oil (1882). 



2. Mnox goUUi Gurney, Ibis, 1883, p. 171 [S.E. New 

 Guinea, A . Goldie'] . 



Ninox goldiel Salvad. 0. P., Aggiunte, p. 22 (1889). 



Sharpe [Journ. Linn. Soc. Lond. xvii. p. 407 (1884)] 

 united both these species with N. tJieomacha ; but with 

 examples of all these three species of Ninox now available 

 for comparison, it becomes evident that he was mistaken, 

 and that we have to deal with three quite distinct forms. 



N. terricolor is a smaller bird, with the chestnut of the 

 underparts mixed with white on the belly only. It has a 

 wing-measurement of 165-183 mm. (6"5-7'2 inches). 



N. goldii is a larger bird, with the whole of the chestnut 

 underparts heavily spotted and marked with white from the 

 throat downwards. The wing measures 221-227 mm. 

 ( = 8-7-8-95 inches). 



The difference in size of the male and female in these 

 species of Ninox is not very great. Of the two specimens 

 collected by Goldie in the Astrolabe Mountains and referred 

 to above, the specimen of iV. terricolor happened to be a male, 

 that of N. goldii a female, and this led Sharpe to suppose 

 that they must be male and female of the same species ; 

 he also made the further mistake of considering both names 

 to be synonyms of A^. theomacha {cf. op. cit. p. 407). 



N. theomacha most nearly resembles N. terricolor both in 



SER. X. — JUB.-SUPPL. 2. , S 



