684 



THE BIRDS OF THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR 

 ISLANDS. 



By a. L. Butler, f.z.s., m.b.o.u., etc. 



Curator, Selangor State Museum. 



(Continued from page 571 of this Volume.) 



Part III. ( With a Plate). 



1188. NiNOX OBSCURA, Hume. Blanf., Ill, p. iJU ; " Str. Feath.," II, 

 p. 153. 



Hume's brown hawk-owl is extremely plentiful in the Audamans, 

 thous^h, like most nocturnal birds, difficult to procure. On fine still nights 

 I often heard as many as a dozen hooting at the same time. The note is a 

 low " whoo-wuk" or " coo-whoop," a soft clear flute-like sound, precisely 

 the same as the note of Ninox scutuJata in Ceylon, {A/fJnls, the Andaman 

 race of scutulata, has an entirely different call.) 



They frequent the same trees night after night, and are especially vociferous 

 just after dusk and before dawn. They are generally met with singly ; I 

 only once saw two together on tho same tree. They are not very shy birds ; 

 once or twice I walked up to within three or four yards of one sitting on a 

 low post before it flew. Their food seems to consist principally of beetles, I 

 got a fair series of this hawk-owl, six good specimens being the result of 

 numerous mooolight stalks. 



It has also been obtained in the Nicobars. 



1212. Spizaetus limnaetus, Horsf . Blanf , III, p, 351; " Str, Feath,," II, 

 p. 1 12. 



The insular race of this hawk-eagle (S, andamanensis, Tytler) is met with 

 throughout tho Andaman**, but is not common, though hardly rare. Mr. 

 Hume only obtained a single specimen during bis collecting trip in the islands, 

 and I only succeeded in getting one example, being unlucky in two or three 

 times getting easy shots at the bird quite unexpectedly when I had only No. 

 8 or dust shot in my gun. 



It is a bold bird, frequently taking a chicken or a pigeon close to a bun- 

 galow. I saw one capture a myna (A. tristis) and came on another, making 

 a meal ofP a Koel, 



1217. Spiloknis CHEELA, Latham. Blanf.. Ill, p. .357 ; *' Str, Feath.," 

 II, p. 147. 



This snake-eagle is a conimoii bird in the Andamans, and has been met 

 with also in the Nicobars. According to Mr, Hume, it is much less cotnmon 

 than »S'. elgiui, to which >t is quite similar in habits. It seemed to me, if any- 

 thing rather more numerous than S. elgini, and I found that snake-eagles shot 

 along the mangrove creeks feeding on crabs were nearly always S. c/iceZa, while 

 birds shot on clearings, &c,, more inland were usually S. elgini. In this species, 



