304 A HISTORY OF BIRDS 



she is small and very dark, but the brown of the upper parts 

 and the big blotches of the ventral feathers are tinged with 

 rufous, and differ from the dark umber-brown of A . chiaradicg, 

 while they are considerably darker than the average A. noctua. 

 The top of the head is as profusely spotted as in the male, more 

 so than in the average Civetta, but the mesial light spots of each 

 feather are very conspicuous on the dark brown ground colour. 

 Finally, the tail feathers are unusually broad." 



Now for the peculiarities of A. chiaradicB. In the first 

 place these all had dark brown irides, so dark as to be almost 

 black, wherein they differed not only from their parents, but 

 from every other species of the allied genera Nyctala, Surnia, 

 Glaucidium and Scops, which all have yellow irides. Further, 

 these abnormal forms differed according to Professor Giglioli in 

 that "the tone and the pattern or style of the coloration of the 

 plumage is absolutely different from that in A. noctua (the 

 parent form) and, I may add, in any other species of that and 

 allied genera. Thus in A. thiaradice the light coloured spots in 

 both remiges and rectrices, which form transverse bands in the 

 expanded wing in other small Owls, are replaced > by /(9«§-2V«<fz'«fl/ 

 bands formed by the white margins of the outer and inner webs 

 of those feathers." Apart from these details, it would seem, 

 however, comparing Professor Giglioli's description with that 

 of the normal A. noctua described in Yarrell's British Birds, 

 that A. chiaradice differs chiefly in having the dark areas of the 

 plumage more intensely pigmented, while the greyish areas are 

 pure white. 



Both sexes, it may be remarked, are represented in this re- 

 markable collection of nestlings, the last nest taken containing 

 two examples of ^. chiaradice, and three normal nestlings. At 

 least Professor Giglioli describes them briefly as normal, i.e., 

 typical examples of Athene noctua, but nowhere, so far as can 

 be discovered, does he say whether these were really normal, 

 or whether they resembled either of the parents, which, as has 

 been shown, were not normal. This omission is curious. 



Having regard to the great interest and importance of this 

 discovery we cannot but feel astonished that, with Professor 

 Giglioli's approval, the only apparent source of this remarkable 

 variation has been deliberately exterminated to adorn the 

 galleries of the Royal Zoological Museum of Florence ! For 



