Pel's Fish-owl

Pel's Fish-owl (Scotopelia peli), so named from having been first discovered by Mr Pel, the Dutch commandant at Elmina, is found in West Africa from Senegambia to Gaboon, and in the Zambesi region in South-east Africa. It measures about 2 feet in length; its wing is 16½ inches long. Its colour above is a deep rufous bay crossed with numerous irregular bars of black; the wing is similarly barred; the under surface of the body is light bay with heart-shaped bars of black; the bill is of a dark-blue lead colour, and the iris is dark brown. The birds from the Zambesi are a little larger than those from West Africa. The natives regard this owl as a fetish bird possessing the power of destroying whatever it looks on; and curiously enough its presence in more than one locality has been followed by an outbreak of disease among domestic animals. See the Ibis for 1859, p. 445.