218 Mr. R, Swinlioe on Formosan Ornithology, 



its approach to their houses; but they also connect unclean 

 animals with their ideas of sorcery and the healing art^ hence 

 large prices arc often given for the bodies of Owls for the cure 

 of various diseases. One common medicinal property attributed 

 to Owls is that of curing pulmonary affections; and for this 

 reason consumptive patients and old people troubled with rheum 

 are often recommended by their medical advisers to indulge in 

 owl-soup ; but in most cases the young of Buho maximus (a com- 

 mon bird in some parts of China) are preferred for this purpose. 



12. Bubo caligatus, Swinhoe, n. sp. 



Native name, Ham-hay (" enduring vacancy ") . 



The only specimen I received of this handsome species was, 

 when it reached me, in fine condition, with horns an inch long; 

 but, owing to an unfortunate accident, the skin has got much 

 injured about the head, and the feathers have mostly fallen out. 

 I sent my example to Mr. Gurney, who would scarcely believe it 

 to have been a horned bird, so similar is it to Syrnium indranee. 

 It is quite unlike any of the horned species of Owls ; I have 

 therefore no hesitation in considering it new. 



Skin round the eye greyish brown ; bill pale ochreous white, 

 washed with bluish grey, which deepens on the base of the upper 

 and on the greater part of the lower mandible ; exposed portions 

 of the toes brownish flesh-colour, bases light ochreous ; claws 

 blackish brown, whitish at their bases ; face-disks deep brownish 

 ochre, whitish near the bill, with black-tipped bristles; throat, 

 line round disk, crown, and upper parts deep brown, with a fine 

 purple gloss conspicuous in some lights ; a large patch of white 

 on the underncck ; axillaries, under parts, and leg-feathers 

 brownish ochre, closely barred with brown, some of the breast- 

 feathers being splashed with the same; quills brown, broadly 

 barred with a deeper shade, and tipped paler, some of the 

 smaller tertiaries and scapulars being barred with white and pale 

 ochreous; tail brown, tipped with white, the two central rec- 

 trices with partial bars of a lighter shade, the rest with more de- 

 termined bars, the thin portions on the inner webs being white; 

 horns about an inch long, of the same colour as the crown. 

 Length 31 in.; winglSi; tail 10. The fifth quill the longest in 



