The sexes present considerable difference in size, but are very similar in their markings; both are spotted, but the female is by far the finest bird in every respect.
Crown of the head, cheeks and ear-coverts dark chestnut, each feather having a mark of brown down the centre; facial disc, back of the neck, upper part of the back, and chest uniform dark grey; lower part of the back and scapulars dark grey, most of the feathers being blotched and marked at the tips with two faint spots of white, one on each side of the stem; shoulders, under surface of the wing, abdomen, thighs and under tail-coverts rich chestnut, the whole of the feathers beautifully spotted with white, the spots regularly disposed down each web, and being largest and most distinct on the abdomen; greater and lesser wing-coverts brownish grey, irregularly barred and tipped with a lighter colour; secondaries dark grey, crossed with three narrow lines of dark brown, and tipped with a broad band of the same colour, the extreme tips being paler; primaries black for two-thirds of their length, their bases brownish buff; upper tail-coverts brown, barred and tipped with greyish white; tail alternately barred with conspicuous bands of dark brown and grey, the brown band nearest the extremity being the broadest, the extreme tips greyish white; irides bright orange-yellow; cere olive-yellow; bill blue at the base, black at the culmen and tips; legs yellow.
The young has the whole of the upper surface nearly uniform dark brown, the tail more numerously barred, and the feathers of the chest and upper part of the abdomen striated, instead of spotted with white: in other respects it resembles the adults.
The front figure represents the female and the other the male, about two-thirds of the natural size.
STRIX CASTANOPS: Gould.
Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp.
STRIX CASTANOPS, Gould.
Chestnut-faced Owl.
Strix castanops, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part IV. p. 140; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part III.
Van Diemen’s Land is the native country of this Owl, a species distinguished from all the other members of the genus Strix, as now restricted, by its great size and powerful form; few of the Raptorial birds, in fact, with the exception of the Eagles, are more formidable or more sanguinary in disposition than the bird here represented.
Forests of large but thinly scattered trees, skirting plains and open districts, constitute its natural habitat. Strictly nocturnal in its habits, as night approaches it sallies forth from the hollows of the large gum-trees, and flaps slowly and noiselessly over the plains and swamps in search of its prey, which, as is the case with the other members of the genus, consists of rats and small quadrupeds generally, numerous species of which abound in the country wherein it is destined by nature to dwell.