OWLS AND DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 369 
of neck light brown with dark shaft-stripes ; back and rump 
sepia-brown ; upper tail coverts lighter brown with some 
white bars ; wing coverts brown, lighter at the tip ; primaries 
gray-brown with black tips and two black bars ; secondaries 
grayer with light tips ; innermost quills almost tawny- brown ; 
tail brownish-black with a broad band ot gray-brown on the 
outer half and a similar narrower band towards the base. 
Lores, sides of head, ear coverts, eyelids, and chin gray ; 
throat tawny-brown with darker shaft-stripes; a faint black 
streak down the centre of the throat and on each side ; rest 
of lower parts, with the wing lining, brown, more or less 
mottled with white ; under surface of wing and tail grayish- 
white with black bars. 
Some, probably quite old birds, are darker, and have the 
throat and whole under surface chocolate-brown. 
Young birds are much lighter. The feathers of the crown 
and nape and sometimes of the whole head and neck are pale 
tawny with dark shaft-stripes and white bases ; the rest of 
the upper parts are brown with pale edges to the feathers ; 
the wing coverts and upper tail coverts are a good deal mixed 
with white; wing quills and tail brown, narrowly tipped with 
white and irregularly barred and mottled with lighter grayish- _ 
brown. . The lower parts are white, or buff, more or less 
marked with long dark shaft-stripes, which are sometimes 
drop-shaped. 
Mature birds may be told by the tail. In the adult stage 
the broad pale cross band, though it may be mottled, is never 
barred as in younger birds. 
Bill black, whitish-blue at the gape; cere hard and horny, 
and of a deep lead colour: iris golden or brownish-yellow ; 
legs and feet yellow. 
Females : length about 26; wing 16°5; tail 10°5; tarsus 
2; mid-toe without claw 2; bill from gape 1°65. 
Males : length about 25 ; wing 16. 
Distribution.—Found during the north-east monsoon, 
inainly in the northern half of the Island. Some birds appear 
to be resident. It occurs throughout the Indian Empire and 
South-eastern Asia. 
