THE BIRDS OF TEE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS. 571 



given to coming into bungalows, two of my specimens being captured in 

 this manner. A female shot in May had apparently just incubated, 



1187. NiNOX AFFiNis, Tytler. Blanf,, III, p. 309 ; " Str. Feoth," II, p 152. 



Common in the Andamans ; I am inclined to think less so in the Nicobars 

 where during my short visit I did not hear it. 



I have headed this note affinis, as I consider this a good species. Mr. 

 Blanford unites it with the continental bird scutulata treating it merely as 

 an insular race, but he writes me that he is open to conviction as to its dis- 

 tinctness. I am well acquainted with N. scutulata of which I have shot 

 numbers in Ceylon, and aflnis seems to me an entirely different bird. Besides 

 being a mere pigmy in comparison with scutulata it is far more rufous below 

 and has an absolutely diiferent note. The call of N, scutulata is a soft, 

 flute-like 'coowhoop' or 'whoo-wuk,' while the hoot of a^nis is a sharp, quick 

 little sound like ''kraw!" or " krow,'' reminding me of the note of Glaucidium 

 castanonotum more than any other owl that I can remember. I twice shot 

 the bird uttering this note, which may be heard every evening among the 

 chorus of N. ohscura and Scops halU with which the forests resound at dusk 

 affinis seems to be a shier bird than ohscura ; it feeds chiefly on moths and 

 beetles. 



N. ohscura, curiously enough, as the birds are so different in plumage, has 

 exactly the same note as scutulata proper. 



(To he continued^ 



