22 



Obs. The above description is taken from one of the specimens in the Colonial Museum. In the British- 

 Museum example, from which our drawing is made, there is less of the spotted character on the upper 

 surface, and the plumage is stained with ferruginous. 



Varieties. Examples differ from each other in the minute details of their colouring. The two specimens in 

 the Canterbury Museum have less white about the face ; the soft feathers forming the facial disk are 

 tawny white, with black shaft-lines and hair-like filaments ; and along the exterior edge of the disk there 

 is a narrow crescent of pure white, each feather marked with a narrow brownish streak down the centre. 

 In one of these examples the lengthened spots or fusiform markings on the upper surface are less distinct, 

 while in the other they are wholly wanting ; but in the latter the fulvous white bars on the primaries are 

 very conspicuous, and add much to the beauty of the plumage. In this specimen the feathers of the 

 upper surface are blackish brown, with a broad tawny margin, those forming the mantle, scapulars, and 

 upper wing-coverts having, on each web, a broad oblique bar of fulvous white. The North-Island bird 

 (in the Colonial Museum) is several shades darker than those from the South Island, the whole of the 

 plumage being deeply stained with ferruginous. The feathers at the base of the upper mandible, and those 

 immediately above the eyes, are white, with black shaft-lines; but the facial disk is washed with fulvous. 

 There is an entire absence of the white markings on the upper surface ; underparts rich tawny fulvous, 

 with a dark brown stripe down the centre of each feather; tail dark brown, crossed by five broad 

 V-shaped bands of tawny fulvous. 



This bird was originally described by Mr. G. R. Gray, in the ' Voyage of the Erebus and Terror,' 

 under the name of Athene albifacies ; and Dr. Kaup afterwards made it the type of his genus 

 Sceloglaux, of which it still remains the sole representative. Mr. Gould, in treating of this sin- 

 gular form, has already pointed out that its prominent bill, swollen nostrils, and small head are 

 characters as much Accipitrine as Strigine, and that its short and feeble wings indicate that its 

 powers of flight are limited, while its lengthened tarsi and shortened toes would appear to have 

 been given to afford it a compensating increase of progression over the ground ; and it does, at 

 first sight, appear strange that a bird, specially formed by nature for preying on small quadrupeds, 

 should exist in a country which does not possess any. It must be remembered, however, that 

 when the Laughing-Owl was more plentiful than it now is, New Zealand was inhabited or, rather, 

 overrun by a species of frugivorous Rat, which is now almost, if not quite, extinct. The Kiore 

 maori, which has been exterminated and replaced by the introduced Norway Rat (Mus decu- 

 manus), formerly abounded to such an extent in the wooded parts of the country that it consti- 

 tuted the principal animal food of the Maori tribes of that period. It was a ground-feeder, sub- 

 sisting almost entirely on the fallen mast of the Tawa, Hinau, Towai, and other forest-trees ; and 

 it would therefore fall an easy prey to the Sceloglaux. The fact that the extinction of the native 

 Rat has been followed by the almost total disappearance of this singular bird, appears to warrant 

 the conclusion that the one constituted the principal support of the other. Be that as it may, 

 the Laughing-Owl, as it has been termed, in allusion to its cry, is at the present day one of our 

 rarest species. There are three specimens in the British Museum, and one in the fine collection 

 of raptorial birds formed by Mr. J. H. Gurney, and presented by him to the Norwich Museum. 

 The Colonial Museum, at Wellington, and the Canterbury Museum contain two specimens each ; 

 and there is a fifth in the local Museum at Dunedin. All these examples, but one, were 



