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Show 526 MR. J. J. LISTER ON THE NATURAL [Dec. 4, obscure paler spot on the lateral parts of the nape and upper tail-coverts ; the hidden bars of the feathers are slaty grey. The fore part of crown and lores clothed with long sparsely barbed white feathers with black shafts, except a narrow line of pale tawny feathers in the middle line, reaching to the base of the bill; ear-coverts duller brown than the nape, with white bases to the barbs ; chin-feathers like those of the lores, but pale tawny and with white shafts. Greater secondary coverts same colour as the back, barred chiefly on the outer web with white, the white bars are bounded by darker brown; primary-coverts dark brown, obscurely barred with paler brown ; edge of wing pale ochre ; primaries dark brown, barred with lighter brown and with paler outer edges ; the second to the sixth primaries have one or two interspaces conspicuously paler than the rest-these are so arranged as to form an interrupted line traversing the extended wing from before outwards and backwards. Tail dark brown, barred with ten rufous bands ; in the outer feathers the contrast between the colours of bands and interspaces becomes more conspicuous. Throat pale rufous. Breast, belly, and flanks white, barred with scarcely blurred bands of the same tawny brown as the back ; the feathers have a narrow shaft-streak of brown ; the bars and interspaces are about equal in breadth ; vent-feathers long and white. Under tail-coverts like the breast, but paler brown. Legs rufous ochre, mottled with rufous brown ; they are clothed with feathers to the end of the metacarpus ; toes sparsely covered with pale horn-coloured bristles. Under wing-coverts uniform tawny brown, paler than the back, becoming mottled towards the edge of the wing ; the larger coverts are pale brown, changing to white at the tips of the feathers barred with ashy brown. Quills below brown barred with pale brown, the bars obscure towards the tips of the primaries. Cere tumid ; the nostrils look forwards and outwards. Measurements. in. Crown to tip of tail lOyV Tail 5 Wing 7 Metatarsus 1^ Third digit to base of claw 1 ^ Only one specimen of Ninox natalis was obtained. It is of a fine tawny brown colour on the back, and bars of the same colour alternate with white on the breast. It measures about 11 inches in length. The stomach contained feathers and bones. A cry up among the woods (ow-ow-ow), like the distant barking of a dog, sometimes broke the stillness of the night, as we lay in Flying-Fish Cove. It was probably made by this bird. This Owl belongs to group C of Mr. Sharpe's arrangement of the genus in the British-Museum Catalogue-a group characterized by the breast being spotted or transversely barred, not longitudinally streaked with brown nor uniform. The group contains 13 species, |