A genus of diurnal Owls, of which five species are natives of Australia; the smaller kinds are represented in Europe and Asia by the _Athene noctua_, _A. Cuculoides_ and _A. Brama_; the larger kinds have no representatives in the northern hemisphere. 32. Athene Boobook Vol. I. Pl. 32. 33. Athene maculata Vol. I. Pl. 33. 34. Athene marmorata, _Gould_. _Athene marmorata_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XIV. p. 18. All the upper surface, wings and tail dark brown, obscurely spotted with white round the back of the neck, on the wing-coverts and scapularies; inner webs of the primaries at their base, and the inner webs of the lateral tail-feathers crossed by bands, which are buff next the shaft and white towards the extremity of the webs; face and chin whitish; under surface dark brown, blotched with white and sandy brown; legs and thighs fawn-colour; bill horn-colour; feet yellow. Inhabits South Australia, is much larger than _A. maculata_, but so nearly allied to, and so much like that species, that I have not thought it necessary to give a separate figure of it. 35. Athene connivens Vol. I. Pl. 34. _Buteo connivens_, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. iv. p. 481. 36. Athene strenua, _Gould_ Vol. I. Pl. 35. 37. Athene rufa, _Gould_ Vol. I. Pl. 36. Order INSESSORES, _Vig._ Family CAPRIMULGIDÆ, _Vig._ Genus ÆGOTHELES, _Vig. & Horsf._ The known species of this genus are two in number, both of which, so far as has yet been ascertained, are confined to Australia. In many of their actions, and in their nidification, they are very owl-like, depositing, like those birds, their four or five round white eggs in the hollows of trees, without any nest. 38. Ægotheles Novæ-Hollandiæ Vol. II. Pl. 1. Inhabits the whole of the southern parts of Australia and Van Diemen’s Land. 39. Ægotheles leucogaster, _Gould_ Vol. II. Pl. 2. Inhabits the northern or intertropical parts of Australia, where it represents the _Æ. Novæ-Hollandiæ_. Genus PODARGUS, _Cuv._