ATHENE CAPENSIS.
quill with dusky white, and those of the remaining quill-feathers variegated
with a few narrow white stripes upon their outer edges; inner surface of
shoulders pale cream-yellow, their outer edges white. Chin and under surface
of neck pale brownish-red, here and there indistinctly barred with pale
cream-yellow; breast barred pale yellowish-brown, brownish red and white,
the bars of the latter colour most distinct towards the base of the neck, where
one occurs towards the point of each feather. Belly white with large brown
blotches, one blotch near the tip of each feather; vent, and under tail coverts
pale cream-yellow, legs white, externally tinted with light yellowish brown,
and faintly barred with dull brown; bristles of toes yellowish white. Cere
livid green; bill greenish-yellow; eyes orange-yellow; claws towards base
yellowish-brown, towards points liver-brown.
F orm.— Typical. Bill small, the upper mandible much curved and strongly
hooked at the point; cere covered with rigid wiry feathers and strong bristles-.
Wings rounded, and when folded reach rather beyond the first third of the
tail, the fourth quill feather the longest, the third and fifth nearly equal, and
rather shorter, the second considerably shorter, and the first about an inch
and three quarters shorter than the longest. Tail slightly rounded at the
point. Tarsi feathered to the toes, the latter thinly covered with strong rigid
bristles; claws long, slender, and slightly curved.
DIMENSIONS.
Inches. Lines. ■ Inches. Lines.
. from the point of the bill to
the tip of the tail..... . .. 9 1
Lengths of thé tarsus ...............
of the middle toe...........
...... 0
...... 0
9
9
of the bill from the gape..... . 0 u i of the outer toe . ........... 0
3
of the wings when folded ... 5 0 of the hinder toe........... ...... .0 • 3
The bird of which the foregoing is a description was shot in the depths of one of the forests
of the eastern district of the Cape Colony. It is the second specimen of the species we have
seen; the first was also killed in a forest of the same district, in 1824, and differed in none of
its essential characteristics from the one here described.