AFRICAN PASSERINE OWL. 
131 
fifth quills are longest, and nearly of equal length, 
although the last is sometimes rather shorter, as 
in this species, than the two preceding ; and these 
three are the only ones with a sinuated outer web, 
excepting the second, the sudden broadness of which 
is only at its very base. 
The total length of the specimen before us may 
be taken at eight inches, supposing the head is 
straightened. The upper plumage is rufous brown, 
or ferruginous, brightest on the head, and especially 
between the shoulders. The whole upper part of 
the head is thickly covered with round white dots, 
edged with black ; and a few of these spots, but 
larger, are scattered on the back, rump, and shoulder 
wing-covers ; the lesser covers have a short row of 
much larger white spots, and there is another row 
on the tips of the greater covers, these latter having 
also a ferruginous spot in the middle ; the spurious 
wings are without spots. The quills are crossed by 
six distinct well-defined blackish bars, which above 
are nearly of the same breadth as the rufous inter- 
vals which separate them, but they are much nar- 
rower on their under surface, and leave the base of 
the inner webs entirely ferruginous ; this last colour 
also, but much darker, spreads over the inner wing- 
covers, the tips of the greater ones only being marked 
with a terminal tear-shaped spot. The white sca- 
pular band is margined above by a row of large 
white spots, ringed with black. Tail rather length- 
ened, nearly even, and blackish, each feather having 
seven pair of transverse white spots, the outer ones 
