SCELOGLAUX ALBIFACIES.
Wekau.

Athene albifacies, G. R. Gray, Voy. of Ereb. and Terr. Birds, p. 2.—Ib. List of Birds in Coll. Brit. Mus., part i.
2nd edit. p. 90.
Sceloglaux albifacies, Kaup.—G. R. Gray, Cat. of Gen. and Subgen. of Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 8. No. 110.

 

Tue bird here figured is another of the strange inhabitants of our antipodal country New Zealand. An owl
it unquestionably is, but how widely does it differ from every other member of its family! Its prominent
bill, swollen nostrils, and small head are characters as much accipitrine as strigine; its short and feeble
wings indicate that its powers of flight are but limited, while its lengthened legs and abbreviated toes would
appear to have been given to afford it a compensating increase of progression over the ground. On what
does this bird live? There are no indigenous small quadrupeds in the country upon which we might infer,
from its structure and what we know of the economy of other terrestrial Owls (such as the Burrowing Owl of
North America, Swrnia cunicularia), it would feed. Does it partially feed on the larvee of such Lepidoptera
as Hepialus virescens, so subject to the attack of that singular fungus the Spheria Robertsi? It would indeed
be interesting to ascertain how it maintains existence.

Of this very rare and singular bird only two examples are known to me: of these, one is in the British
Museum, the other in the collection of J. H. Gurney, Esq., of Norwich, a gentleman much attached to
Ornithology, as his liberal donations to the Norwich Museum abundantly testify. Both these specimens
were collected on the middle and south islands of New Zealand: that in the British Museum is the original
of Mr. G. R. Gray’s Athene albifacies and the type of Dr. Kaup’s genus Sceloglaue.

The present is the first time the bird has been figured, and as its appearance in this work may be the
means of making it more generally known, I trust that the attention of travellers will be directed to the
species, and that ere long we may be furnished with some account of its habits and economy, of which, at
present, nothing is known.

Mr. Percy Earl, who obtained the specimen in the British Museum at Waikonaiti, in the south island of
New Zealand, states that it is known to the natives by the name of Wekau.

Plumage of the upper surface chocolate-brown, each feather margined with fulvous ; some of the sca-
pularies with a lengthened mark of dull white within the margin and others on the edge ; primaries spotted
along the outer margin with buffy white ; secondaries and tertiaries crossed by indistinct or interrupted bars
of buffy white, assuming on those near the body the form of spots; spurious wing very dark brown; tail
brown, crossed by five narrow irregular bars of buffy white and tipped with fulvous ; fascial disk pale sandy-
brown, except on the forehead, throat and ear-coverts, which are whitish, each feather with a streak of
brownish-black down the centre; feathers of the under surface deep fulvous, with a broad mark of dark
brown down the centre of each, the former tint increasing on the lower part of the abdomen and thighs,
when it again gradually fades into dull white on the lower part of the tarsi; toes sickly-green, thinly beset
with hair-like feathers; cere much developed and of a lead colour; bill bluish horn-colour at the base,
passing into yellowish horn-colour at the tip, the under mandible yellow.

The figure is of the natural size.

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