156 
MR. J. H. GURNEY ON THE NEW ZEALAND OWL. 
the roots, slate-colourecl at the base, and for two-thirds of their length, 
and, perhaps, it was one result of prison life, that I observed they 
slightly over-lapped and crossed. It was also noticeable that the 
dark facial bristles did not lie flat against the white feathers which 
form the disk, but stood out a little. This Owl had a penchant for 
small birds which, it was found, he preferred to Mice or Eats, 
dainties he was not accustomed to get in New Zealand. He was 
in good health when he arrived in Norfolk, but felt the cold of an 
English November very much, — though, in its own country, said to 
brave the icy blasts of snowstorms, — crouching in a corner, although 
the cage Avas in a conservatory, and, on November 9th, died, but 
not from want of food, as he was, if anything, too fat. Like 
Mr. Dawson Kowley’s, he had always been provokingly mutej but, in 
New Zealand, Sir Walter Duller had one which barked in the 
night like a dog, and Mr. Potts Avrites of their “doleful yells.” The 
carcase Avas sent to Mr. W. P. Pycraft, of the Oxford Museum, to 
investigate its anatomy, which has never been described, and may 
possibly prove of great interest, but as it Avas divested of its skin 
the feather tracts could not be described. 
I should call the eyes of Scelrxjlaux very dark brown, large and 
rather prominent ; beak and nostrils, Avhich are a good deal raised, 
or, as Gould says, swollen, as gray horn colour ; claws, Avhich are 
not in the least pectinated, the same, with dark tips. Its toes have 
