in Nyctea scandiaca, Linn. (Snowy Owl), have a black pupil and straw-coloured iris. In Buho ignavus, T. Forster (Eagle Owl), the iris is orange-yellow ; and I observe in a bird of this species known to be eight years old, the colour of the iris is much darker. The eyes of these individual birds vary in colour. The Wood-Owl QSyrnium striduld) has eyes like Sceloglaux albi/acies, with a reddish eyelash. In the Mottled Owl (^Strix asio) the pupil is black, the iris straw-colour. The Little Owl (Carine noctua) has eyes like Strix asio. Dr. Buller says (Birds of New Zealand, p. 18) of Spiloglaux nova, zealandice: — " On the approach of night its whole nature is changed : the half-closed orbits open to their full extent, the pupils expand till the yellow irides are reduced to a narrow external margin, and the lustrous orbs glow with animation, while all the movements of the bird are full of life and activity." All this is quite the case with the White-faced Owl, except that its irides are not yellow. The bird is strictly nocturnal ; and the two here depicted sit all day in a corner on the ground, close up together. More gentle animals could not be ; they allow themselves to be handled without any resentment. On March 1st last I tied their legs together, and put each bird into the scales ; the dark one weighed 1 lb. 4^ oz., the light one 1 lb. 5|- oz. I fancy the facial disk of the lighter bird has become whiter since I received it. New Zealand possesses many fine forms, which to me, who confess to some enthu- siasm in these things, are intensely interesting ; but few are more so than Stringops habroptilus and Sceloglaux albifacies — both being strictly nocturnal, the one an Owl-like Parrot, the other an Accipitrine Owl. I do not make out the latter to be such a bad flyer, judging from these specimens ; but it is not always easy to speak on this point. Nocturnal species seldom show much in captivity — the Laughing Owl, for instance, being provokingly mute.
