244 BUBONIDa: ASTO 



B. S. Afr. pp. 74, 801 (1875-84) ; id. Cat. B. M. ii, p. 97 (1875) : 

 Ayres, Ibis, 1877, p. 341 [Potohefstroom] ; Oates, Mataheleland, p. 

 299 (1881) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 143 (1896) ; Marshall, Ibis, 1900, 

 p. 270 [nr. Salisbury] ; Alexander, Ibis, 1900, p. 433 [Chioowa on the 

 Zambesi] . 



Pisorhina leucotis. Fleck, Journ. Ornith. 1894, p. 394. 



Asio leucotis, Eeichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 661 (1901). 



Description. Adult male. — General colour above, grey narrowly 

 mottled and verraiculated with darker ; crown of the head washed 

 with black ; back and wing-coverts streaked with the same colour ; 

 a row of white spots along the outer scapulars ; wing-quills and 

 tail-feathers grey like the back, banded with darker ; facial disc 

 white with a greyish patch below the eye bounded behind by a 

 strongly-marked black margin ; the feathers of the ear tufts are also 

 black on the outer web ; below, like the back, but the vermiculations 

 more barlike, becoming white on the abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts, all with longitudinal narrow streaks of black ; tarsi dirty 

 white with a few small black spots, the feathering extending almost 

 to the tips of the toes. 



Iris orange-yellow ; bill bluish-horn ; toes greyish. 



Length 12-26 ; wing 7-76; tail 3'80; tarsus 1-60 ; culmen 0-80; 

 ear tufts 1-75. 



Distribution. — The White-faced Owl is found all over Africa 

 south of the Sahara, from Gambia, Kordofan and Somaliland south- 

 wards. Within our limits it does not extend far south of the 

 Orange river, on the banks of which it was procured by Bradshaw. 

 In Natal it is not uncommon near the coast. In the Transvaal, 

 Ehodesia and German south-west Africa it appears to be fairly 

 abundant, as the following list of localities shows: Natal — Near 

 Durban (Millar); Transvaal — Komatipoort and Oliphant river in 

 Lydenburg (Francis), Potchefstroom and Limpopo river (Ayres) ; 

 Bechuanaland — Mahura's country (Arnot), Serule in Bamangwato 

 (Buckley), near Lake Ngami (Andersson and Fleck) ; Ehodesia — 

 Umvungu river near Gwelo (Oates), Pandamatenka (Holub), near 

 Salisbury (Marshall) ; German south-west Africa; common in Damara- 

 land, rarer in Great Namaqualand (Andersson), Eeheboth (Fleck). 



Habits. — According to Andersson this Owl is always found in 

 pairs, and though a thoroughly nocturnal bird can see very well 

 during the day ; its food consists chiefly of insects and grasshoppers, 

 but it also preys on rats and mice, as their remains have been found 

 in stomachs examined by Oates and Ayres. 



