286 ASIONID^. 



both colours mottled on the middle feathers ; chin and below the 

 throat white, rest of lower surface buff ; upper throat with fusi- 

 form black shafts ; breast with broad black stripes passing into the 

 narrow dark shaft-lines and wavy cross-bars of the abdomen, 

 shaft-lines disappearing and the cross-bars growing fainter or 

 occasionally dying out on the legs, vent, and lower tail-coverts. 



Bill horny black ; irides orange-yellow ; claws dusky (Hume). 



Length 22; tail 8; wing 15-5 ; tarsus 3 ; bill from gape 1-7. 



Distribution. The Rock Horned Owl is almost, if not entirely, 

 confined to the Indian Peninsula, being one of the commonest 

 Owls of Northern and Central India, except in desert tracts ; less 

 common in the south, wanting in Ceylon. It is found, though not 

 commonly, in Rajputana, Sind, and the Western Punjab, and has 

 been reported to occur in Afghanistan ; it inhabits Kashmir and 

 the lower Himalayas to the westward, though not Nepal or 

 Sikhim ; it is very rare in Lower Bengal and apparently unknown 

 to the eastward, though Blyth states that it occurs in Arrakan. 



Habits, 4'c. This fine Owl haunts rocky hills and ravines, 

 alluvial clifi^s, and brushwood, beside rivers and streams, and in 

 flat country groves of trees. It is by no means exclusively noc- 

 turnal, and it lives on rats and mice, birds, lizards, snakes, crabs, 

 and large insects. Its cry is a loud dissyllabic hoot. The 

 breeding- season is from December to April, and from two to four 

 white oval eggs are laid on a rocky ledge or in a cave, or on the 

 ground under a bush or tuft of grass. The eggs measure about 

 2-1 by 1-73. 



1169. Bubo coromandus. The Duslcy Homed Owl. 



Strix coromanda, Lath. Ind. Orn. i, p. 53 (1790). 



Urrua coromauda, Hodqs. J.A.S. B. vi, p. 373 ; Jerdon, B. 1. 1, p. 130 ; 



id. Ibis, 1871, p. 345 ; Hume, N. ^ E. p. 63 ; Butler, S. F. iii, 



p. 450 ; V, p. 217 ; Godto.-Aust. J. A. 8. B. xlvii, pt. 2, p. 12. 

 Urrua umbrata, Bl^/th, J. A. S. B. xiv, p. 180 (1845). 

 Bubo umbratus, Bh/th, Cat. p. 35. 

 Bubo coromandus, Horsf. Sr M. Cat. \, p. 75 ; Hume, S. F. i, p. 164 ; 



Adam, ibid. p. 369 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. ii, p. 35 ; Butler, 8. F. vii, 



p. 180 ; Ball, ibid. p. 201 ; Cripps, ibid. p. 254 ; Hime, Cat. no. 70 ; 



Reid, 8. F. x, p. 15 ; Davidson, ibid. p. 291 ; Taylor, ibid. p. 455 ; 



Oates, B. B. ii, p. 151 ; id. in Hume's N. Sf E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 101 ; 



C. H. T. Marshall, Ibis, 1884, p. 407 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 66. 

 Ascalapliia coromanda, Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 253 ; Hume, Rough Notes, 



p. 371 ; A. Anderson, P. Z. 8. 1872, p. 81 ; 1876, p. 316 ; Blyth, 



Birds Btirm. p. 65. 



Coloration. "Whole plumage above and below greyish brown 

 with dark shaft-stripes, the feathers finely mottled and vermi- 

 culated with whitish ; more white on the lower surface, which is 

 paler than the upper in consequence ; a few white or buff spots 

 on the outer webs of the outer scapulars and on some of the 

 larger and median primary-coverts ; lores white, with black shafts ; 

 aigrettes darker than crown ; quills and tail brown, with pale 

 mottled cross-bands and tips. 



