^3SBI^H 



65 



I found castings, which were probably one or two years ejected, I could not find any fresh signs of the 

 bird. The district is now closely settled, and sheep roam in large flocks among the limestone rocks the 

 birds formerly inhabited. The residents of the district informed me that they rarely hear the laughter-like 

 call of this once common Owl. 



No one looking at the Laughing Owl would suppose that it is very responsive to the finer 

 emotions; but a settler in the back country, whose house one of these birds frequented, 

 declared to me that it could always be brought from its lurking place in the rocks, after dusk, 

 hy the strains of an accordion. Soon after the music had commenced the bird would silently 

 flit over and face the performer, and finally take up its station in the vicinity, and remain 

 within easy hearing till it had ceased. I have already recorded (2nd ed., vol. ii., p. 51) 

 the case of a tame Sea-gull, which was always attracted and visibly affected by the notes 

 of a piano. 



Order STEIGIFOEMES.] 



[Family BTJBONID^. 



SCELOGLAUX RUFIFACIES. 



(ETJFOUS-FACED OWL.) 



Sceloglaux rufifacies, Buller, Ibis, vol. iY., p. 639 (1904). 



Ad. ? : similis 8. albifaciei, sed valde minor, et supra rufescente suffusus; facie sordide 

 rufescenti-brunnea, minime alba; pileo nuchaque nigricanti-brunneis ; remigibus rufe- 

 scenti-brunneo regulariter fasciatis et terminatis; rectricibus concoloribus fulvescenti- 

 brunneis, obscure pallidiore brunneo fasciatis ; rostro flavicante ; pedibus sordide 

 flavis. 



I have on more than one occasion, in the course of this work, dwelt upon the more or 

 less conspicuous appearance of representative forms in the North and South Islands respec- 

 tively, due no doubt to the long-continued separation of these insular areas, with a narrow 

 but deep strait of the sea running between. To the many instances already recorded I have 

 now to add another. 



As my readers are aware, there still lingers in the South Island a large species of 

 ground-feeding Owl, which has been treated of in the immediately preceding pages under 

 the name of Sceloglaux albifacies. According to the resident Maoris, in former times it was 

 comparatively abundant ; but since the time of our colonisation of New Zealand, in 1840, it 

 has always been a rare bird, and it is now on the verge of extinction. Comparatively few 

 collections contain specimens of it, and more than one living example during the last ten 

 years has brought £50 in the market. This species, as it now appears, was strictly confined 

 to the South Island, but a closely allied and representative form (known to the Maoris 

 under a different name) was formerly an inhabitant of the North Island. This latter is 



Vol ii.— 9 



