Upper cinnamon-red, spotted black; tail rufous, faintly banded black above, tipped white, then black bar; side neck, throat, abdomen, under tail white; chest buff striped black; f., larger. Insects, mice. F. 69. PANDIONIDAE (1), OSPREYS, 6 sp.--3(0)A., 5(1)O., 1(0)P., 1(0)E., 1(0)Nc, 1(0)Nl. 1 3 =174 White-headed Osprey=, Fish Hawk, _Pandion leucocephalus_, Mol., N.G., A., T. =vt. cos. bird. Stat. r. _shores_ 23 Crown, hind-neck, throat, abdomen, under tail white; upper dark-brown; chest mottled brown; side-neck dark-brown, marked white; wing-quills black; dives; f., sim. Fish. ==== [Page 84] [Illustration: [174] [175] [176] [177] [178]] Just as the Diurnal Birds of Prey (e.g., Hawks) are closely related to those of the Northern Hemisphere, so are the Nocturnal Birds of Prey (Owls) very closely related to those of the Old World. The different kinds of Owls are so closely similar that there are many disputes as to their classification, and it is not likely that we shall ever be able to recognize in the living, free state all the species recognized by scientists. Indeed, I was much interested at the Adelaide Museum to see our leading ornithologists fail to pick out the skins of two English Barn Owls when they were placed with three Australian Lesser Masked Owls, and yet ornithologists give our birds such widely-different names that literature is useless to us. These names have seriously hampered the popularization of bird-study in Australia. If ornithologists, with skins in hand, cannot separate them, what is the use of manufacturing species? As Owls are active late in the afternoon or at night, there has always been a certain amount of mystery regarding them, and, speaking generally, the ordinary observer knows little of them. Two of the Australian birds have forced themselves on our notice to some extent. The Powerful Owl, the largest of our Owls, has alarmed many by means of its blood-curdling screeches heard in quiet forest gullies. The Boobook Owl, though not often seen, calls "Mopoke," which sounded like "Boobook" to the aboriginal ear, but became "Cuckoo"--the best-loved bird-call of their far-distant home to the ears of the homesick first white residents. And was it not, they asked, what one might expect in a country where Christmas came at the wrong time of the year, where the trees were always green, and shed their bark instead of their leaves--where the leaves grew vertically, instead of horizontally, and so gave no shade--was it not natural that the Cuckoo, a day bird in England, should become a night bird in this land of paradoxes and contradictions? Thus Australia's reputation was added to even by the Boobook Owl.