BUBO CAPENSIS. 
umber-brown at the points. Bill dark livid brown ; claws a horn colour, 
lightest towards base. Eyes bright orange yellow. 
Form, &c.— Head moderately large ; facial disc complete, cervical collar 
distinctly defined. Egrets nearly over and about an inch from the outer 
corners of the eyes, the feathers composing them narrow and pointed. Body 
bulky and densely covered with feathers and down. The wings, when 
folded, reach to within an inch and a half of the tip of the tail, the third quill 
feather in specimen the longest, the second and fourth equal and slightly 
shorter, the first about an inch shorter than the second. The secondaries 
about two-and-a-half inches shorter than the third primary quill feather. 
Tail slightly rounded. Claws long, strong, arched, and pointed. Bill com- 
pressed, curved from the base, and the upper mandible strongly hooked and 
pointed. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Length from the point of the bill to 
the tip of the tail 
Length of the tail 
bill to the angle of the 
mouth 
wings when folded 
Colouring, &c. of the other sex not known. 
In. 
Lin. 
In. 
Lin. 
Length of the tarsus 
3 
3 
22 
8 
outer toe 
1 
1 
9 
0 
middle toe 
1 
10 
inner toe 
1 
5 
1 
6 
hinder toe 
0 
10 
15 
0 
Levaillant asserts that Strix Bubo is a native of Southern Africa,* and I was disposed, when 
1 first obtained the owl just described, to regard it as a young individual of that species. On 
being informed, however, by an able zoologist, who had seen an adult specimen, that it differed 
materially as regarded its marking from the European bird, J came to the resolution of viewing 
it as distinct, and concluded that Levaillant must, once at least, have fallen into an error. 
Since my return to England, I have endeavoured, but without success, to obtain for com- 
parison a specimen of Strix Bubo of the same age as the bird heie described. I shall there- 
fore give the characters of one as drawn by Linnaeus, and leave it to the reader to decide 
whether the differences between it and the Cape bird are not greater than are commonly found 
to exist between two individuals of one species whose ages are to be inferred as nearly the 
same. He says, “ the wings were dark, with reddish-brown spots ; feathers of the breast 
brick-red, with a dark indented longitudinal stripe ; tail feathers still short, dark with roundish 
red spots ; feet reddish brown.”+ 
Few specimens of this species have yet been procured, and none, as far as I know, at any great 
distance from Cape Town. According to the statements of the Dutch settlers and the Hotten- 
tots, single specimens are occasionally seen perched upon the tops of trees both about day-light 
and dusk ; but from their being so vigilant and wary, they can rarely be approached so closely 
as to be shot. They are said to feed upon moles, rats, mice, and small birds. 
* Oisseaux d’Afrique, tom. i. page 160. pi. 40. + Yarrell’s British Birds, vol. i. p. 110. 
