THE BOOBOOK OWL 



189 



Families and Genera. 



Buhonidce. — Hinder margin of sternum with clefts; furcula 

 free from sternum ; inner margin of claw on middle toe 

 not serrated; greater part of facial disc below the eye. 

 Genus Ninox. 



Strigidae. — Hinder margin of sternum without clefts; 

 furcula attached to the keel; inner margin of claw on 

 middle toe serrated; eye near the middle of the facial 

 disc, parting of feathers between the eyes. Genus 

 Strix. 



Family Buhonidce. Owls. 

 The Owls of this family, though they hunt chiefly by night, 

 are partially diurnal, the large yellow or brown eyes being 

 capable of facing the daylight. The Australian species are all 

 assigned to the single genus Ninox. The head is smoothly 

 rounded with no tufts about the ears. The general colour is 

 brown of some shade, variegated with all manner of flecks, spots 

 and bars of lighter and darker, the distinctive mottling and 

 marbling of the species being difficiilt to convey in words. The 

 frontal patch of stiff feathers which helps to separate so 

 completely the two halves of the facial disc in the Barn Owls is 

 quite wanting. The plumage of the nestlings and young birds 

 is different from that of the adults. All lay their eggs in holes 

 in trees, and the eggs are white. 



A. — Breast streaked, each feather broadly centred with darker 

 colour. 



The Boobook Owl. 



N. boobook. 



Australia generally. 



Length 16 inches, wing 10.3 inches. Above light brown, the head 

 spotted all over with fulvous, the hind neck very thickly mottled with 

 bufEy white spots, back and tail reddish-brown, the latter with six or 

 seven lighter bars, which become buffy white beneath the tail; under 

 wing coverts with lighter brown bars; under surface fulvous streaked. 



The bird is mostly abroad during the night, when it gives out 

 the melancholy More Pork — More Pork cry which can be heard 

 from far in the stillness. The cry of the Boobook is, indeed, as 

 characteristic of the Australian forest by night as the laugh 



