SURNIIN A, 77 
_ THE MALABAR OWLET. 
Length, 76 to 8:25; expanse, 17°5 to 18; wing, 5 to 5°25; tail, 
2°58 to 2°62; tarsus, 0°9 to 1; bill from gape, 0°7° 
Indes bright yellow. 
Head, neck, and interscapulars uniform lightish rufous, with 
narrow close dusky rays; wing the same, but the color deeper, 
and th: bands broader; primaries deep rufous, the first three 
barred throughout with dusky, the rest mostly unspotted, or 
obscurely banded at the base, distinctly barred at the tip ; second- 
aries with broad bands throughout of rufous and dusky; the 
tertiaries and scapulars barred rufescent-whitish and dusky ; 
the outermost scapulars with large white spots; the lower parts 
are barred throughout with dusky, and white on the belly and 
‘flanks, and with rufous and dusky on the breast; the vent and 
lower tail-coverts pure white; tail dusky, with eight or nine 
whitish bars, somewhat broader than those of the last species. 
The Malabar Owlet is common all along the Western Ghats, in 
the adjacent forests and also at Ratnagiri, but does not occur on 
the plains; it is a permanent resident where found; its call, 
considering the size of the bird, is extraordinarily loud and 
disagreeable. 
Genus, Ninox, Hodgson. 
Head small ; dise obsolete ; bill short ; cere large ; nostrils tumid 3 
wings long, firm ; third quill longest, first and second moderately 
graduated; tail long, firm, nearly even; tarsi rather short, 
feathered; toes long, thinly clad with bristles, and bordered 
laterally by stiff bristles ; lateral toes equal. 
Ninox lugubris, Tick, 
81. (in part)—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p- 147; Butler, 
Deccan; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 377; Hume’s Scrap Book, 
p. 420. 
THE Brown Hawk Owt. 
Length, 11 to 12:1; expanse, 27 to 29; wing, 86 to 9-25 > tail, 
5:1 to 5-4; bill from gape, 0°9 to 1. 
Bill blackish, pale horny-yellow on culmen; cere greenish ; 
irides bright yellow. 3 
Legs and feet vary from yellow to reddish-yellow, and in young 
birds greenish-grey. 
Lores, forehead, and chin white ; the elongated bristle-like shafts 
of some of the feathers blackish ; ear-coverts brown, ashy at the 
base; top of the head, back and sides of the neck ashy-brown:; 
throat and front of the neck slightly more rufous-brown, streaked 
with fulvous ; in some specimens the fulvous greatly predominates, 
and these parts may then be said to be light fulvous, streaked 
with greyish-brown; back, scapulars, lesser, median, and greater 
secondary wing-coverts, tertiaries, and most of the secondaries, 
rump, and’ upper tail-coverts brown, varying much in shade in 
