Vol. xii.] 74 



Owl lived in the high mountains of Abyssinia, at an elevation 

 between 10,000 and 13,000 feet. It was a typical Asio, on 

 account of the shape of the wing-feathers, and had the 

 large ear-openings characteristic of the genus, as diagnosed 

 by Mr. Pycraft. 



Mr. Neumann also pointed out that the bird called Bubo 

 abyssinicus by Sharpe and Hawker in recent papers on the 

 birds of Somali-land was a lowland bird, and was, in his 

 opinion, only a reddish form of Bubo cinerascens. All these 

 reddish birds seemed to be males, and occurred together with 

 typical females of Bubo cinerascens, as was proved by a pair 

 collected by Hawker at Jifa Uri (Somali-land) and another 

 pair obtained by him at Kaka on the White Nile. 



Another very rare bird in Abyssinia, which occurred at 

 about the same height, was Bubo capensis dilloni, Prev. & des 

 Murs. Mr. Neumann did not meet with this species on his 

 last journey, but had examined the type in the Paris Museum. 

 It proved to belong to the B. capensis group, and not to 

 the group of Bubo maculosus, of which Prof. Reichenow had 

 made it a synonym in his work ' Die Vogel Afrikas/ 



Prof. Reichenow was therefore wrong in denying the 

 occurrence of Bubo capensis in Abyssinia, and in suggesting 

 that the bird so called might be Bubo ascalaphus or Asio 

 abyssinicus. So far as Mr. Neumann could judge, there 

 were three geographical forms of Bubo capensis to be distin- 

 guished : — 



1. Bubo capensis, Smith. Cape Colony. 



2. Bubo capensis mackinderi, Sharpe. Kenya. 

 Larger than the typical form and pure white below, not 



yellowish with large triangular spots. 



3. Bubo capensis dilloni, Prev. & des Murs. 



Larger than the typical form and nearly white below, with 

 distinct bars and no large spots. 



Type in the Paris Museum. Another specimen collected 

 by Traversi near Antoto (Shoa) was in the Florence Museum, 

 and two examples were in the British Museum — the one 



