ATHENE CAPE NS IS
(^Wes_]?late?5S}
ATHENE CAPENSIS.—S m ith .
A ves.—P late XXXIII.—F emale.
A. supra brunnea, postice lucens; capite cerviceque supra lineolis, maculisque sagittiformibus albis notatis;
dorso flavo-brunneo lineolato; scapularibus internis maculis albis notatis, lineam longitudinalem forman-
tibus; pectore, flavo-brunneo, brunneo-rubro, alboque, fasciato; abdomine albo, brunneo-maculato;
remigibus rectricibusque brunneis, flavo-brunneo teeniolatis; rostro viridi-flavo; oculis aurantiis.
Longitudo 9£ unc.
■ Noctua capensis, Smith.—South African Quarterly Journal, 2nd Series, 1834.
CoLOURtjjj-The top of the head, and the back and the sides of the neck
intermediate between chesnut-brown and cochineal-red, each feather variegated
with two imperfect white bars, the one nearest the point somewhat
arrow-shaped, and margined anteriorly and posteriorly with brown of a darker
tint than that of the other parts of the feathers. Interscapulars, scapulars,
hack, rump, upper tail coverts, and tail feathers umber-brown, with a faint
purple gloss; several of the scapulars are marked with large white blotches
towards their points, and some of the outermost ones, which overlap the inner
edges of the wings, are white with brown points; the remainder of the scapulars
and the feathers of the other parts enumerated are crossed each by two
light, yellowish-brown bars; the one nearest the point, in most situations,
slightly arrow-shaped, or at least with more or less of an angle where it
crosses the shaft; each of the tail feathers with fourteen narrow, and
slightly waved, yellowish-brown bars. Shoulders, lesser wing coverts, and
secondary quill coverts, the same colour as the back, and similarly barred, a
few of the lesser coverts situated towards the outer edges of the wings,
have each a large white blotch on the outer vane, which blotches form a sort
of broken white bar along the anterior part of the wing, and parallel
with that formed by the white scapulars. The large quill coverts, and the
quill feathers pale umber brown, the latter, except the outer vanes of the
two outermost primaries, crossed by many narrow, yellowish-brown bars,
the bars of the inner vanes fading into white towards the edges of the feathers.
The outer vanes of the two outermost primaries faintly margined towards the