62 



Nestling. — Covered with thick, slaty black down, with projecting white filaments, which 

 are shortest on the crown, sides of the head and rump, imparting to these parts a whitish aspect. 



A specimen in the Otago Museum, just becoming fledged, has very conspicuous lunate 

 discs on the face. 



In the ' Birds of New Zealand ' (vol. i., p. 205), while rejecting Strix parvissima, 

 Ellman, as a New Zealand species, I quoted Mr. T. H. Potts' observation in ' Out in the 

 Open' in favour of the recognition of a "very small Owl" from the woods near the Eangitata 

 Eiver and from Mount Peel forest, pointing out that Mr. Potts had recorded the species " on 

 hearsay evidence." Mr. W. W. Smith, being familiar with the facts, has since written a 

 letter to the ' Ibis ' * in explanation. He says : — 



In May, 1880, Mr. Mitton, then manager of Mount Peel Station, brought me a small living Owl, 

 which he desired me to stuff and mount for him. He stated that it had been captured with the hand 

 the previous afternoon by one of the shepherds, on his way home from Peel forest. In handing it to me 

 he remarked that it was ' surely a different kind of Owl,' as it was so much smaller than any he had 

 seen. I, however, explained to him at the time that it was none other than an exceptionally small 

 ' Morepork ' (Spiloglaux novce-zealandice), and was no doubt a female, a fact which I subsequently 

 verified while dissecting the specimen. It was an immature bird, the general plumage being slightly 

 darker than many I have seen, and it lacked much of the distinct and neat markings of grey and white 

 on the wings and breast peculiar to adult birds of that species. A few weeks later the same gentleman 

 brought me a slightly larger bird which he had captured near the gorge. Since then I have taken two 

 diminutive females, in different localities and in similar plumage, but, excepting their smaller size, there 

 was nothing to lead any one with a slight knowledge of this little Owl and its variations to suppose 

 them to belong to a smaller or distinct species. 



Order STEIGIFOEMES.l 



[Family BUBONIMI. 



SCELOGLAUX ALBIFACIES. 



(LAUGHING OWL.) 



Sceloglaux albifacies (Gray), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. i., p. 198. 



This remarkable Owl, which is now on the verge of extinction, was named by Mr. G. E. 

 Gray, in 1844, Athene albifacies , and was afterwards transferred by Dr. Kaup, of Darm- 

 stadt, to his genus leroglaux and sub-genus Sceloglaux, where it remains, admitted on all 

 hands (as Mr. Gurney observes) to be a strongly differentiated, insular form— a relic, perhaps, 

 of a far-distant time when a giant bird of prey, Harpagomis, half as large again as the 

 Golden Eagle, also inhabited New Zealand. He adds that Mr. F. Beddard, who has examined 

 the skull, considers that it comes nearer to that of Strix in its relative proportions than do 

 the skulls of many other genera. 



* The ' Ibis,' 1890, vol. ii., 6th series, p. 24. 



