Pale buff; the upper part of the head, the back and the wings variegated
with dark brown, and sparingly dotted with white; under surface paler
with a few brown spots; tail buff, undulated with brown fascia; facial
disc purplish buff, margined with deep brown spots; bill pale
horn-colour; toes yellow.
The figures represent the two sexes of the natural size.
[Illustration:
STRIX TENEBRICOSUS: _Gould_.
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
STRIX TENEBRICOSUS, _Gould_.
Sooty Owl.
_Strix tenebricosus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XIII. p. 80.
A fine specimen of this species is comprised in the collection of the
British Museum, and a second example graces my own; its habitat is
undoubtedly the dense brushes of the east coast of Australia, where,
like other Owls, it remains secluded during the day, and sallies forth
at night in search of its natural prey. It is a fine and powerful
species, and the rarest of the Australian members of the genus to which
it belongs, from all of which it is conspicuously distinguished by the
dark sooty hue of its plumage, and by the primaries being of one colour,
or destitute of the bars common to all the other species.
Facial disc sooty grey, becoming much deeper round the eyes; upper
surface brownish black, with purplish reflexions, and with a spot of
white near the tip of each feather; wings and tail of the same hue but
paler, the feathers of the wing of a uniform tint, without bars, those
of the tail faintly freckled with narrow bars of white; under surface
brownish black, washed with buff, and with the white marks much less
decided; legs mottled brown and white; irides dark brown; bill
horn-colour; feet yellowish.
The figure is of the natural size.
[Illustration:
STRIX DELICATULIS: _Gould_.
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
STRIX DELICATULUS, _Gould_.
Delicate Owl.
_Strix delicatulus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part IV., 1836, p.
140; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part III.
_Y̏on-ja_, Aborigines of the lowlands of Western Australia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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