270 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



I doubt very much if this species is really distinct from Ninox min- 

 dorensis; the size is nearly the same and specimens of the two do not 

 seem to have been actually compared. 



Subfamily STRIGIN^G. 



Genus STRIX Linnceus, 1758.* 



Large; without ear-tufts; secondaries nearly as long as primaries; 

 plumage compact; barred below, spotted above; legs and toes closely 

 feathered. 



2.31. STRIX WHITEHEADI ( Sharpe i . 



PALAWAN BARRED OWL. 



Syrnium ivhiteheadi Sharpe, Ibis (1888), 196, pi. 3; Hand-List (1899), 

 1 , 294 ; McGkegoe and Worcester, Hand-List ( 1906 ) , 47. 



Palawan (Whitehead, Platen, Bourns d- Wo7-cester, Celestino). 



"Adult male. — General color above chocolate-brown, spotted witli white, 

 the spots arranged in pairs, the one on the inner web often fulvescent ; 

 scapulars forming a light patch of tawny-buff, covered with narrow bars of 

 chocolate-brown ; lesser wing-coverts dark chocolate-brown, with scarcely 

 any white spots; median and greater coverts more reddish chocolate- 

 brown, transversely barred with white, slightly tinged with tawny-buff; 

 alula and primary-coverts unifonn blackish brown; quills brown, crossed 

 with lighter and more rufous-brown bars, whiter near the edge, especially 

 of the secondaries, which are slightly freckled externally; the innermost 

 secondaries spotted with white, like the back; upper tail-coverts like the 

 back, but barred with tawny-buff or whitish ; tail-feathers dark chocolate- 

 brown, barred with tawny-buff or creamy white, with which the tail is 

 conspicuously tipped, the light bars, seven in number, on the center 

 feathers, broader and coalescing on the remainder; crown of head like 

 the back, thickly spotted with white, the spots arranged in pairs ; feathers 

 of the hind neck with concealed bases of tawny-buff; the mantle some- 

 what more uniform brown; sides of face chestnut, deeper about the eyes 

 and on the ear-coverts, which are whiter posteriorly; ruff dark chocolate- 

 brown, barred across with rufous; uhin rufous, followed by a broad white 

 patch, narrowly barred with black; remainder of under surface of body 



den Beschreibungen von Ninox spilonotus und Ninox mindorensis so ist das 

 Ergebniss ein unsicheres, wenig befriedigendes. Der Umstand, dass in der Beschrei- 

 bung von Ninox spilonotus nur von Flecken und an keiner Stelle von Bindenzeicli- 

 nung die Rede ist, sowie, dass die Innenfabnen der grosseren Schwingen als "spotted 

 and barred witli ligbt rufous brown' beschrieben werden. geniigt voUkonimen, um 

 jeden Gedanken an Gleichartigkeit von N. Plateni und N. spilonotus auszusch- 

 liessen." 



* Cf. Auk (1908), 25, 371. 



