252 BUBONIDJD BUBO 



Dr. Stark gives the following account of the bird: — " Hoetjes 

 Bay (i.e., Saldana Bay in the western part of the Cape Colony), 

 October 8, 1896. This morning as I was climbing the side of a 

 rocky kopje about a quarter of a mile from the village, a large 

 horned owl flew from just in front of me, leaving exposed two eggs 

 lying in a scratching on the earth on a shelf of rock sheltered by 

 low weeds and bushes. She flew a short distance and sat fully 

 exposed on a rock with horns erect and with the brilliant yellow 

 irides conspicuous. I had previously seen another Bubo on this 

 side of the hill and heard it hoot one evening— a rather mellow 

 " hou hou," which reminded me of the noise made by a baboon. 

 These owls are very common in the neighbourhood, and I have 

 often startled them from their nests under bushes on the bush- 

 covered plains and sides of the hills. Next morning when I 

 returned to the nest I found both the eggs gone, one lay broken 

 about ten feet off under a rock ; the nest was a flat space of ground 

 about a foot across, with a few leaves and bits of broken dead stick 

 strewed promiscuously about it. 



498. Bubo lacteus. Verreaux's Eagle Owl. 



Strix lactea, Temvi. PI. Col. ii, pi. iv (1820). 



Bubo laoteus, Smith, 8. A. Quart. Journ. ii, p. 317 (1834) ; Ourney. Ibis, 



1863, p. 321, 1868, p. 50 [Natal]; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. 8. Afr. 



pp. 71, 801 (1875-84) ; id. Cat. B. M. u, p. 33 (1875) ; Dates, Mata- 



beleland, p. 299 (1881) ; Holub Sf PelzeU, Orn. 8ud-Afr. p. 40 



(1882) ; Gurney, Proc. Zool. 8oo. 1884, p. 560 ; Eendall, Ibis, 1896, 



p. 166 [Barberton] ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 144 (1896) ; Woodward Bros. 



and Sharpe, Ibis, 1897, pp. 414, 495 [Zululand] ; Woodivard Bros. 



Natal B. p. 156 (1899) ; Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 260 [Mashonaland] ; 



Woodward Bros., Ibis, 1900, p. 519 [St. Lucia Lake]; Beichenow 



Vcig. Afr. i, p. 650 (1901). 

 Bubo verreauxi, Bp. Consp. i, p. 49 (1850) ; Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 38 



(1867) ; Buckley, Ibis, 1874, p. 362 [Limpopo]; Flech, Journ. 



Ornith. 1894, p. 394. 

 Huhua verreauxi, Gurney, Ibis, 1868, p. 147 ; id. in Andersson's B. 



Damaraland, p. 41 (1872). 

 Huhua lactea, W. Ayres, Ibis, 1887, p. 48 [eastern Transvaal]. 



Description. Adult. — Above, dark grey, finely mottled with 

 white, the markings on the crown forming a fine transverse band- 

 ing ; wings with some of the coverts edged with white, forming an 

 irregular longitudinal bar; quills dark brown with paler cross- 

 bands, vermiculated on the outer web, becoming pure white on the 



