ATHENE CAPENSIS. 
quill with dusky white, and those of the remaining quill-feathers variegated 
with a few narrow white stripes upon their outer edges ; inner surface of 
shoulders pale cream-yellow, their outer edges white. Chin and under sur- 
face of neck pale brownish-red, here and there indistinctly barred with pale 
cream-yellow ; breast barred pale yellowish-brown, brownish red and white, 
the bars of the latter colour most distinct towards the base of the neck, where 
one occurs towards the point of each feather. Belly white with large brown 
blotches, one blotch near the tip of each feather ; vent, and under tail coverts 
pale cream-yellow, legs white, externally tinted with light yellowish brown, 
and faintly barred with dull brown ; bristles of toes yellowish white. Cere 
livid green ; bill greenish-yellow ; eyes orange-yellow ; claws towards base 
yellowish-brown, towards points liver-brown. 
Form. Typical. Bill small, the upper mandible much curved and strongly 
hooked at the point ; cere covered with rigid wiry feathers and strong bristles. 
Wings lounded, and when folded reach rather beyond the first third of the 
tail, the fourth quill feather the longest, the third and fifth nearly equal, and 
rather shorter, the second considerably shorter, and the first about an inch 
and three quarters shorter than the longest. Tail slightly rounded at the 
point. Tarsi feathered to the toes, the latter thinly covered with strong rigid 
bristles; claws long, slender, and slightly curved. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. Lines. 
Length from the point of the bill to 
the tip of the tail 9 (j 
of the bill from the gape 0 1 1 1 
of the tail 3 9 
of the wings when folded ... 5 0 
Inches. Lines. 
Length of the tarsus 0 9 
of the middle toe 0 9 
of the outer toe 0 6^ 
of the inner toe 0 7| 
of the hinder toe 0 3 
The bird of which the foregoing is a description was shot in the depths of one of the forests 
of the eastern district of the Cape Colony. It is the second specimen of the species we have 
seen ; the first was also killed in a forest of the same district, in 1824 , and differed in none of 
its essential characteristics from the one here described. 
