130 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



kind alive in my possession for many months. Their usual cry 

 was a long clear hoot, but occasionally, at night, I heard them 

 utter a low indistinct strangling sort of cry. When alarmed they 

 would hiss and snap with their bills, and if a dog approached them 

 they would lower the head almost to the ground, erecting all 

 the feathers of the body, and spreading out their wings to their 

 full extent. These, from the stooping position of the bird, were 

 nearly vertical, their upper edge almost touching the ground, and, 

 from their extent, the bird presented a most formidable front to an 

 intruder. 



70. Urrua Coromanda, Latham. 



Strix, apud Latham.-t-U. umbrata, Blyth, Cat. 144 — HoRSF., 

 Cat. 89.— Gray and Hardw., 111. Ind. Zool., 1. PI. 20— Jangli 

 Ghughu, H. ; Ntlla gudla guba, Tel. 



The Dusky Horned-Owl. 



Descr. — Plumage above dull sepia-brown, much freckled, especi- 

 ally on the head and hind-neck, which have a narrow dark streak on 

 the centre of each feather ; ear -tufts chiefly dark brown ; outer 

 scapulars with light spots in the centre webs ; wings pale, or some- 

 what ashy brown, with dark bands ; tail with three distinct broad 

 brown bands, on a pale mottled fulvous-brown ground; beneath, 

 pale earthy-brown, with a narrow dark brown streak on the centre 

 of each feather. 



Bill, horny-yellowish; irides, orange-yellow. Length, 24 inches; 

 wing, 16 ; tail, 9 ; bill at gape, nearly 2 ; tarsus, 2. 



This sombre-plumaged Owl has much of the general form of Ben- 

 galensis, and the orifice of the ear is about the same size as in that 

 bird, but the talons are more unequal, and sharper, and the outer 

 toe is equal to the inner toe, which is a rare structure in 

 this family. 



There is little doubt that this is the coromanda of Latham ; but the 

 fio-ure in Gray and Hardwicke's Illustrations is so unlike nature, 

 that it was not at first recognised to be the same bird. 



The dusky horned-Owl is found throughout the greater part of 

 India, having been obtained in lower Bengal, where not very rare, in 

 the Carnatic in the more wooded parts, and near hills, and in the 



