86 BUBONID^:. 



Length. 21 to 23 inches ; wing 16; tail 9; tarsus 2 to 2-65. 



ffab.S'md, N.-W. Provinces (Futtehgur, Delhi), Oudh, Nepaul, Lower 

 Bengal, Arrakan, Lower Himalayas, the Carnatic, Malabar Coast, Rajputanaand 

 North Guzerat. Like the last it is a resident in India. Breeds in December, 

 constructing nests of sticks in the fork of trees, lined with some soft material 

 as grass or green leaves. Eggs, 2, 3, varying in size and shape. Typically 

 they are broad ovals. In colour slightly glossed creamy white and varying 

 in size from 2' 2 to 2-55 in length, and from 175 to 2 'o in breadth. 



85. BubO nipalensiS, Hodgs. As. Res. xix. p. 1 72 ; Sharpe, Cat. Striges, 

 p. 37. Huhua nipalensis, Hodgs. J.A. S.B t \\. p. 362 ; Jerd. B. Ind. i. 

 p. 131. No. 71 ; Blyth, Ibis. 1866, p. 254; Hume, Rough Notes, p. 378; id. 

 Str.F.i.^. 431. Bubo orientalis, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. As. S. B. p. 34. 

 Huhua pectoralis, Holds. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 416. The FOREST EAGLE OWL. 



Adult. Above brown narrowly tipped and banded across with tawny buff 

 over the whole of the upper surface, these bars less distinct on the crown, but 

 broader and deeper colored on the hind neck. Outermost scapulars tipped and 

 spotted with yellowish buff on the outer web, forming a distinct shoulder 

 patch. Primary coverts nearly uniform dark brown, with faint indications of 

 lighter brown bars. Quills dark brown, barred darker ; tail dark brown, 

 broadly tipped with whitish and crossed with six other bands of fulvous ; face 

 dusky brown with whitish shaft streaks ; feathers above the eye blackish. 

 Ear tufts 3' I inches long, dark brown, notched and barred with fulvous or 

 white on the inner web. Cheeks with white stiff feathers mesially streaked with 

 brown ; chin whitish rest of under surface of body white, washed here and 

 there with fulvous and barred across with dark brown ; under tail coverts the 

 same, also the under wing coverts. 



Length. 23 to 25 inches; wing 16-5 to iS'i ; tail 1 1 j tarsus 3'2 ; bill at 

 gape 2* 5, bill horny yellow ; irides brown. 



Hab. Southern India and the Himalayas, ranging Eastward into Tennaserim ; 

 also Ceylon and Malabar. 



I have nothing to record in regard to its nidification. It preys on rats, snakes, 

 hares and pheasants. Mr. Gurney in P. Z. S. 1884, p. 558, plate 52, gives an 

 excellent figure of this large owl, from a living specimen in the Zoological 

 Society's Garden, captured as a nestling on a precipitous ledge of a lofty moun- 

 tain in the Karenne Country to the N. E. of Pegu. It has lived in the Gardens 

 since 1878, at which time a note was made of the circumstances of its capture. 

 (P. Z. S. 1878, p. 790), under the name of Bubo (Huhua) Orientalis. 

 Mr. Gurney, now has no doubt that it is really an example (now fully adult) 

 of H. Nipalensis. Mr. Gurney says " the present is probably the most eastern 

 example of Huhua Nipalensis, of which the locality has as yet been ascertained, 

 as there appears to be considerable doubt whether a young owl obtained by 

 Col. Tickell on the Mooleyit Mountain in Tennaserim, belonged to this species 



