COLOUR.—Facial disc; plumose feathers immediately around the eyes, nearly black, tipped with glossy fulvous; those nearer the margin are white at their base, and only slightly tipped with a darker brown. Between the eyes a band of small fulvous feathers with a central streak of dark brown, passing backward, blends into the plumage of the nape. Back of head and throat streaked with fulvous and brown, the centre of each feather being brown, and its edge fulvous. Interscapular region and the feathers of the wing, coloured in the same manner, but the fulvous part is indented on each side of the shaft in the brown, giving an obscurely barred appearance to these feathers. Primaries brown, with large rounded marks of fulvous; those on the first feather being smaller, and almost white: wing-coverts brown, and but little mottled. Tail with transverse bars of the same brown and fulvous, the latter colour much clearer and stronger on the external feathers; in the central ones, the fulvous part includes irregular markings of the dark brown. _Under surface._—Throat and breast, with center of each feather brown, edged with fulvous; the former colour being predominant. On the belly and under tail-coverts the brown coloured marks on the shafts are narrow, but they are united to narrow transverse bars, which form at the points of intersection marked something like arrow-heads. The fulvous tint is here predominant. Downy feathers on thighs same fulvous colour as rest of body. Bill black. [Illustration: _Birds. Pl. 3._ _Otus Galapagoensis._ ] FORM.—Second primary scarcely perceptibly longer than the first, and fourth rather longer than first. Tarsi thickly clothed with short feathers to the root of the nails. In. Total length 13½ Wings 11 Tail 6 Tarsi 2 Middle toe to root of nail 1⅒ From tip of beak to interior edge of nostril ⁶⁄₁₀ Habitat, James Island, Galapagos Archipelago, (_October_). Mr. Gould informs me, that “this species has most of the essential characters of the common short-eared owl of Europe (_Strix brachyota_), but differs from it, and all the other members of the group, in its smaller size and darker colouring.” The lesser proportional size of the fulvous marks on the first primaries, and on the tail, and the peculiar transverse brown marks on the feathers of the belly, easily distinguish it from the common short-eared owl. The specimen described is a male bird. 2. OTUS PALUSTRIS. _Gould._ Strix brachyota. _Lath._