MASKED OWL. 
colour, speckled with grey, dashed with white : this appearance arising from 
each feather having a darker spot at the end, and within this a triangular 
white mark ; the inner webs of the feathers rusty -yellow, as in the Barn Owl ; 
quills and tail clouded, the latter crossed with five or six bands of black, 
margined above and below with white ; under-parts of the body and under 
wing-coverts pale buff, with a dull, dusky spot at the end of each feather ; 
outer quill greatly serrated and second less so, the edges of the others 
smooth ; legs feathered to the toes, the latter hairy ; claws black. Inhabits 
Kew Holland ; not unlike the Barn Owl, but darker in plumage ; has the 
manners of it ; feeds chiefly on mice, which it swallows whole, as also 
small reptiles.” 
On this account alone Stephens in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., Vol. XIII., pt. ii., 
p. 61, 1861, based his St{rix) ? novcehollandice. 
In 1831, from two Australian specimens in the Zoological Gardens, 
Vigors described Strix jpersonata. This name was used by Gould in his “ Birds 
of Australia,” but fortunately it does not further concern us, as the name 
is preoccupied. When Gould first described Australian birds, he introduced 
in the Proc. Zool. Soc. (Bond.) 1836, p. 140, 1837, two species, thus : “ Strix 
castanops. Str. disco fasciali castaneo, ad marginem saturatiore, et nigro 
circumdato ; corpore supra alis caudaque laete rufo-brunneis, plumis singulis 
fasciis latis saturate brunneis, dispariter ornatis ; capite humerisque maculis 
sparsis minutis albis ; corpore infra flavescenti-brunneo ; lateralibus coUi 
corporisque guttis nigris sparse ornatis ; femoribus tibiisque flavo-brunneis 
pedibus flavescentibus ; rostro flavo fusco. Long. tot. 18 unc; rostri, 2J; 
alae, 15 ; caudae, 7 ; tarsi, 3|. 
In Terra Van Diemen. 
“ This is the largest known species of the restricted genus Strix, of 
which the common Barn Owl is a typical example. 
“ Strix Cyclops. Str. disco fasciali albo, venuste annulo saturate brunneo, 
circumdato ; corpore supra albo ; dorso humerisque pallide straipineis, 
maculis brunneis et albis lentiginosis, primariis, fasciis alternis stramineis 
brunneisque ; pogoniis externis apicibusque lineis brumieis rectis, frequentibus, 
et retortis ; cauda alba fasciis brunneis ; interstitiis albis brunneo crebre 
guttatis, corpore infra albo, maculis brunneis ; femoribus tarsisque albis ; 
pedibus flavo-fuscis ; rostro livido. 
“ Long. tot. 15 unc ; rostri. If ; alae, 11| ; caudae, 5J ; tarsi, 2|. 
“ Hah. In Xova Cambria, Australi. 
“ This is one of the most beautiful species of the genus.” 
Soon afterward Gould exhibited a series of Hawks and Owls before the 
Zoological Society of London, and the following is the published account of 
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