of Hongkong, Macao, and Canton, 27 



9. Ketupa ceylonensis (Gm.)*. Crab Owl. 



This magnificent Horned Owl, so like Bubo maximus, but at 

 once distinguishable from that bird by the naked tarsi, is a con- 

 stant tenant of the dark rocky ravines of Hongkong. The Eu- 

 ropean cemetery in the Happy Valley is separated from the race- 

 course by a broad road, and bounded in the front by a high wall 

 with a central gateway. At the rear of this enclosure, which 

 abounds in graceful tombs and funereal trees, rises a high hill, 

 well-wooded, and cleft by a ravine tangled over by most luxu- 

 riant vegetation. In this lovely spot are found some of the 

 choicest ferns and plants for which Hongkong is justly cele- 

 brated. Happening to pass one day, after I had stood enjoying 

 the glorious view, I rambled up a narrow path, gun in hand. A 

 Bulbul flew past me, and then another ; and, as they perched 

 within gunshot on a bush, I fired at them, when, to my astonish- 

 ment, from under a gigantic black rock which rested on a 

 smaller one, thus forming a natural cave, out flew a great Owl, 

 and alighted on a branch close above me, with raised crest and 

 ruffled feathers, evidently much bewildered and startled by the 

 report of the gun. He was not, however, more astonished than 

 myself, and by the time I had recovered myself he had also re- 

 covered himself, and, seeing me standing near, made off to the 

 other side of the hill. I saw him settle on a tree, and thinking that 

 an Owl by day was an easy prey, I pursued. But his eyes were 

 too good ; I could not get near him. I thereupon returned to his 

 roost, and found, by the feathers and old casts, that the ledge 

 underneath the rock must have been long tenanted. But what 

 surprised me most was to find that the casts consisted chiefly of 

 morsels of crab-shells and claws, together with a few bones of 

 some small murine animals. Two days afterwards I again put the 

 Owl out of the same haunt, but somehow managed to miss him. 



* Certainly this species, and not K.javanica, as supposed by Mr. Swinhoe. 

 Mr. Swinhoe speaks of the iris of Ketupa ceylonensis as " orange." I am 

 informed by Mr. J, H. Gm'ney, that, in a specimen which was in the Zoo- 

 logical Society's Gardens some years since, the irides were of a veiy bi-ight 

 clear and pm:e yellow, without any tint of orange. It would appear there- 

 fore that the colouring of the irides in this species varies as it does in 

 Bubo maximus, the very old individuals of which have much redder irides 

 than the young ones. — P. L. S. 



