MASKED OWL. 
similar but the brown on the outer feathers paler ; facial disc white, the outer 
circle tipped with orange -buff and black, the feathers surrounding the eye and 
base of the bill buffy-white in colour, disintegrated and hair-like in structure, 
a spot in front of the eye and eyelash black ; throat and entire under-surface white, 
tinged with orange-buff on the breast, abdomen, thighs and under tail-coverts and 
irregularly marked with brown on these parts as well as the under tail-coverts. 
Bill white ; cere fleshy -white ; iris brown ; orbits dull reddish-purple ; feet 
whitey-brown. Total length 430 mm. ; culmen 26, wing 302, tail 127, tarsus 66. 
Figured. Collected at Melville Island, off Northern Territory, on the 17th of 
June, 1912. 
Immature female. General colour of the upper-surface, including the head, back, wings 
and tail dark brown, with white tips and white mottlings to the feathers, the bases 
dusky-grey and the subapical portion orange-buff ; bastard-wing and primary- 
quills like the back, primary- and secondary-quills somewhat paler than the back 
with incomplete ferrugineous bars which fade into buff on the inner webs ; tail 
similar to the back but paler in colour and more coarsely marked, the dark pattern 
assuming the form of bars and the outer feathers for the most part white ; facial disc 
smoky -white, cheeks and sides of throat paler and inclining to white, the outer margin 
of the disc chestnut minutely marked with black and white above and behind the 
eye, becoming paler on the lower cheeks and throat, where the feathers are edged 
with blackish at the tips like those on the chin, the feathers immediately surrounding 
the eye black, which is increased in extent in front of the eye ; breast, abdomen, 
thighs, sides of the body, axillaries and under wing-coverts orange-buff, the feathers 
marked with brown and white, some of the inner under wing-coverts paler and 
inclining to white instead of buff ; lower abdomen, vent, inner portion of the thighs 
and under tail-coverts white, the last having a few pale brown spots ; quill-lining 
and greater series of the under wing-coverts buffy, barred and mottled with brown. 
Bill white, the base and orbits light purple ; eyes brown ; feet whity -brown. Total 
length 405 mm. ; culmen 25, wing 315, tail 129, tarsus 68. Collected on Melville 
Island on the 26th of October, 1911. 
As hereafter detailed, this Owl was known to Latham, probably from a 
drawing made by Watling, but very little of its habits are yet known. 
The peculiarities of coloration have been the cause of more notes than 
inquiry into its habits. The more technical matter will follow, but I find 
it impossible to altogether dissociate the two, so the notes immediately 
given are more or less disconnected and fragmentary. Two “species ” were long 
separated, though most of the writers knew they were more closely plated, 
and I here give notes of both together ; through confusion of locality pro- 
hibiting a better arrangement, Gould’s account will sufficiently indicate this 
problem. 
Of Strix castanops he wrote : “ Tasmania and probably the brushes of 
the opposite coasts of Victoria and New South Wales are the native countries 
of this Owl, a species distinguished from aU the other members of its genus 
by its great size and powerful form. . . . Forests of large and thinly scattered 
trees, skirting plains and open districts, constitute its natural habitat. 
Strictly nocturnal in its habits, as night approaches it sallies forth from the 
hollows of the large gum-trees, and flaps slowly and noiselessly over the 
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