GEASS-OWL. 
irregular bars and mottlings, tbe inner webs have a good deal of white near 
the base and pale mottlings at the tips of the secondaries and inner primaries ; 
tail orange-buff with three dark brown bars and brown mottlings at the tips of the 
feathers : the outermost pair of feathers are almost entirely white, with indications 
of two dark bars on each and a little brown mottling near the tips, all the tail- 
feathers are more or less white at the tips and also on inner webs of the lateral 
ones, there is also an indication of a fourth brown bar on the middle tail-feathers 
near the base ; facial disc white tinged with buff, eyelids and a spot in front of 
the eye blackish-bro-wn, outer margin of facial disc buff at the tips of the feathers, 
with blackish dots and dark narrow edgings ; sides of neck and sides of breast 
sandy-buff, with dark subapical spots to the feathers ; abdomen, thighs, under 
tail-coverts, axillaries, and under-wing white with dark subapical spots and 
tinged with sandy-rufous, the greater series of the under wing-coverts more coarsely 
marked with brown ; lower aspect of quills buffy- white coarsely marked with brown 
and becoming uniform brown at the tips of the outer primaries ; tail-feathers 
buffy- white below, barred with brown. Bill yellowish ; eyes bluish-black ; feet 
whity-brown. Total length 370 mm. ; culmen 22, wing 330, tail 112, tarsus 78. 
Figured. Collected on the Victoria Biver, Northern Territory, on the 6th of 
April, 1895. 
An adult male from Palm Island, Queensland, is much lighter generally, especially 
on the under-surface. Culmen 24, wing 315, tarsus 80. Collected on the 22nd of 
June, 1885. 
Nest. A hollow under a tuft of grass. 
Eggs. Clutch four, white and roundish, 43-45 mm. by 31-32. 
Breeding-season. May, June. 
That this beautiful Owl was an inhabitant of Australia is the chief discovery 
of Sylvester Biggies, who figured it in his “ Ornithology of Australia ” as a 
new species, naming it Strix walleri and writing : “ This fine new species of 
Owl is now figured for the first time, and it is with much pleasure I name it 
after the discoverer, Mr. Eli Waller, of Brisbane, to whose large and valuable 
collection I am so much indebted for most of my figures, and to whose 
scientific and extensive practical knowledge of the birds of Australia, and 
energy and perseverance as a collector, I am happy to bear testimony. It does 
not often happen in a country so well searched as Australia, since the visit 
of Mr. Gould in the years 1838-40, that so important and interesting a species 
as the present is brought to light ; and the fact of this new species havihg been 
shot in the immediate neighbourhood of Brisbane may serve to encourage 
others interested in the study of ornithology (more especially in the newly 
settled districts where novelties are mostly to be looked for), to endeavour 
to add their contributions to the very numerous and interesting fauna of 
their adopted country. . . . Nothing is yet known of the habits of this species, 
but it doubtless assimilates in every important respect to the family in 
general. Its nearest ally is Strix delicatulus, a much smaller species, which, 
like the present, has the tarsi naked for about half the length, the remainder 
of the Australian Owls yet known being feathered to the toes.” 
399 
