SYRNIUM. 1J7 



This bird has been included in the Indian Avifauna owing to the country in 

 which it was first discovered, being under British Administration. Oormara 

 is only about 60 miles from Kurrachee, the seaport of Scinde, and it is 

 not unlikely it may be found to occur there. Of its habits and nidification 

 nothing is known. 



113. SyTnium niviCOllim, Hodgs. in Gray's Zool. Misc. p. 82 ; 

 Blyth,J. A. S. B. xix. pp. 185, 550; Jerd. B., Ind. i. p. 124, No. 66; 

 Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 359 ; Sharpe, Cat. Striges, iii. p. 250. THE 

 HIMALAYAN WOOD-OWL. 



Above mottled dark brown and fulvous, the outer webs of the scapulars 

 white or with a fulvous tinge, and forming a conspicuous shoulder patch. 

 Quills brown with whitish interrupted bands; tail brown with 8 9 bars of light 

 brown marbled towards the tips ; sides of the neck and eyebrows also with 

 a good deal of white ; chin whitish ; disc greyish mottled with brown, 

 slightly darker round the eyes ; ruff with a few brown markings ; lower parts 

 mottled with brown, white and fulvous bars and lines ; tarsal feathers narrowly 

 barred brown, and the toes feathered to nearly the tips, where there are 2 3 

 moderate transverse scales. Irides dark brown ; bill pale fleshy yellow ; 

 cere faintly brown. 



Length. 16 to 18 inches; wing n to 127 ; tail 7 to 77 ; tarsus 2 102-15. 



Hab. The Punjab, N.-W. Provinces, and from Murree (the Himalayas), 

 extending into Western China. Mr. Hume has had it from Darjeeling and 

 Kotegurh, and Capt. Marshall got one at Kussowlie, at a 'height of only 5,000 

 feet above the sea. 



The species is allied to the European 5. Aluco ; the difference is in the 

 smaller size of Aluco, and the proportionally larger and stronger bill and claws 

 of the Indian species. 



Nothing appears to be known of its nidification. 1 



114. Syrnium Sinense, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp. p. xvi. Strix seloputo, 

 Horsf. Trans. Lin. Socy. xiii. p. 140. Strix pagodarum, Tern. pi. col. 230. 

 Bulaca sinense, Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 357. Syrnium sinense, Sharpe, 

 Cat. Striges, B. Mus. ii. p. 261 ; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 37; id. and Davison 

 S. F. vi. p. 28 ; Oates, S. F. vii. p. 45 ; llume, S. F. viii. p. 83 ; Bingham, 

 S. F. ix. p. 146 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 182 ; id. B. British Burmah t ii. p. 164. 

 THE MALAYAN WOOD-OWL. 



Forehead, chin, and facial disc rather bright ferruginous without marks ; 

 lower edge of disc whitish ; a large patch on the throat pure white ; a space 

 between this patch and the chin ferruginous ; ear coverts black, barred slightly 

 at the lower end with ferruginous ; top of head and neck very dark 

 chocolate brown, each feather with two white spots on either web, the spots 

 becoming larger as they recede from the front of the head ; ^kles of the neck 



