Frederick D. Welch—Voices of some Oivls 155


being no ear-tufts. Can we exclude the possibility of the voice being

indirectly of use ? I see no reason, even though it feeds on fish, why

the voice, if suddenly uttered, should not startle a small mammal or bird,

and make it more easily seen by the Owl; and my experience in England

has been that some mammals certainly stay quiet if alarmed for a time

to escape danger, and will move if a sudden noise is made (for instance,

a wild vole I experimented on in 1917). Bouvier’s Owl ( S. bouvieri) is

another species in the genus, the individual seen being from Lagos.

Briefly described it was smaller than S. peli and paler brown, the black

parts not so well marked ; iris dark brown. Unfortunately I do not

remember its voice. Does any reader 1


A Winking Owl ( Ninox connivens ) from North Queensland used to

utter a sound like “ woop ! woop ! ” ; it being a pretty little grey

bird with pale breast longitudinally streaked with brown and no ear-

tufts. But the most extraordinary sound I have yet heard from any

foreign Owl was a weird sepulchral cry which I believe came from a

Milky Eagle Owl ( Bubo lacteus), a large ear-tufted species about

27 inches long, ranging in Africa south of a line from Senegambia to

Abyssinia. Considering that it and also a second bird seen were in

general colour of a darkish grey, with paler breast and abdomen, and

a black semicircular mark on each cheek (concave towards the beak),

the species name seems to me very unsuitable, because the breast and

abdomen were the only parts having any approach to milk white. Was

the type specimen an albino individual ? However, it seems to me that

a species name ought to be retained even if it does not agree in colour,

because if people start to alter names originally given to the types*

they knock away, so to speak, the foundations of nomenclature ; and

the result would be to cause confusion among ornithologists and do

more harm than good.


In this Owl it seems to me that such an unearthly sound as that

voice would make a concealed mammal or bird start and expose its

whereabouts to a passing Owl. The sound referred to made me “ jump ”

at the moment.


Syrnium indranee of South India and Ceylon is an attractive looking

species, a living individual uttering voice much like S. aluco ; and to

show how variable it is I am quoting from writings of the late



