NINOX. 311 



rather paler, with a greyer head, and is found in India and Burma 

 generally, chiefly in the less damp parts of the country ; the latter, 

 of a deeper more uniform brown colour above, occurs in Malabar, 

 Ceylon, parts of Burma, &c., where the rainfall is heavier. 

 iY. affinis, from the Andamaus and Nicobars, is merely a small 

 insular race, some supposed difPerences in colour, as Hume ha» 

 also clearl}'- shown, being individual. 



Distribution. Throughout the Oriental region. This Owl is 

 common in the well-wooded parts of India, rare in the tracts less 

 furnished with trees, such as the Bombay Deccan, and parts of 

 the North-west Provinces, wanting, except at Mount Abu, in 

 Kajputana, Sind, and the Punjab. It has not been observed in 

 the Himalayas beyond the lower forests, but it is generally distri- 

 buted in Burma and Ceylon. 



Habits, 6fc. The Brown Hawk-Owl keeps much to thick trees 

 dming the day; it is chiefly nocturnal, but is occasionally seen 

 sitting on a stump or branch in the evening after sunset or in the 

 morning. It lives chiefly on insects, which it not unfrequently 

 captures in the air, but it also feeds on mice, lizards, &c. The 

 call is said by Captain Legge to be a not unmelodious hoot, which 

 he writes ivlioo-wuk, and he doubts if this Owl utters cries like a 

 strangling cat, or a hare when caught by hounds, as stated by 

 Tickell, Buchanan Hamilton, and others. Mr. Eeid, however, 

 who wounded one, noticed that it cried like a hare. That peculiar 

 strangled cries are not uncommon at night in the forests of 

 India, I know from having heard them ; I never succeeded 

 in detecting the bird by which they are made, though I have 

 no doubt it is an Owl. Very little is known of the breeding 

 of N. scutulata, except that it rears its young in holes in trees 

 without any lining, and lays nearly spherical white eggs. 



1188. Ninox obscura. Hume's Broivn HawTc-Oivl. 



Ninox obscura, Hume, S. F. \, p. 11 (1873) ; Ball, ibid. p. 55 ; Hmne^ 

 S. F. ii, p. 153 ; Walden, Ibis, 1874, p. 129, pi. iv ; Shm-pe, 

 Cat. B. M. ii, p. 177 ; Hume, Cat. no. 81 quint. 



Coloration. Very dark chocolate-brown above and below, growing 

 lighter and more rufous on the abdomen ; a few smaU whitish 

 spots or bars occm^ on the flanks and abdomen (often only to 

 be seen by raising the overlying feathers), and the lower tail- 

 coverts are barred with white ; feathers of the lores, forehead, 

 and chin bristly, whitish, or white at the base, black at the ends ; 

 quills uniform deep brown ; tail-feathers deep brown, with about 

 four narrow pale greyish cross-bands and a whitish tip. The head 

 above is often a little darker than the back. 



Bill blackish ; cere, ridge of upper mandible and tip of lower 

 green ; irides yellow ; feet yellow ; claws black. 



Length 11*5 ; tail 5 ; wing 8'75 ; tarsus 1 ; bill from gape 1. 



Distribution. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The nearest 

 ally is the Papuan A^. theomacha. 



