THE BROWN HAWK-OWL. l.VJ 



Genus NINOX, Uodys. 



540. NINOX SCUTULATA. 

 THE BROWN HAWK-OWL. 



Strix scutulata, Uaffl. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 280. Ninox scutellatus 



Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 147 (part.); Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 303; Hume, S. F. iv. 

 p. 373. Ninox scutulata, Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 420 (part.) ; Sharpe, Cat. 

 Birds B. Mm. ii. p. 156 ; Bl $ Wold. B. Burm. p. 67 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 84 ; 

 Kelham, Ibis, 1881, p. 371. Ninox hirsutus (Temm.), Hume, S. F. iii. p. 40. 

 Ninox burmanica, Hume, S. F. iv. p. 285 ; Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi. p. 40 ; 

 Hume, S. F. viii. p. 84 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 148 ; Hume, S. F. ix. p. 245. 

 Ninox innominata, Hume, S. F. iv. p. 286, v. p. 16. Ninox lugubris 

 (Tick.), Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 577 ; Gates, S. F. x. p. 183. 



Description. Male and female. Forehead, lores and chin whitish, with 

 black shafts ; the whole upper plumage, wing-coverts and tertiaries dark 

 chocolate-brown; the scapulars with large concealed white spots; pri- 

 maries and secondaries dark brown, barred with white on the inner webs ; 

 some of the primaries edged with rufous ; tail ashy brown, tipped paler 

 and with five dark-brown bars across it ; throat rufous streaked with 

 brown ; breast rufous-chocolate, each feather edged on the sides only with 

 white ; remainder of lower plumage rufous-chocolate barred with white ; 

 under tail-coverts nearly pure white; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 deep rufous, barred with paler rufous. 



Iris bright yellow ; eyelid plumbeous, the edges yellowish brown ; cere 

 dull green; bill bluish black; the culmen and tip of lower mandible 

 yellowish green ; feet pale yellow ; claws dark horn. 



Length 12*5 inches, tail 5*3, wing 8'5, tarsus I'l, bill from gape 1. 

 The female is of about the same size as the male. 



The above description is taken from a Tenasserim bird, the race named 

 N. burmanica by Mr. Hume. Birds from Pegu differ in being a lighter 

 colour above and in having the quills more barred with white. 



I am of opinion, however, that the birds are not divisible into two 

 species, nor are they to be separated from the birds which inhabit China, 

 the Malay peninsula and the Indo-Burmese countries ; and I accordingly 

 follow Mr. Sharpe in uniting them all under Raines's name. N. luyubris, 

 which, according to Mr. Sharpe, inhabits solely the Indian peninsula, is 

 probably a recognizable species when typical specimens are examined ; but 

 there appear to be numerous intermediate examples which cannot be 

 assigned with certainty either to one race or the other, and the advisa- 

 bility of maintaining two species seems open to doubt. The works above 

 referred to contain every thing of importance that Mr. Sharpe and 

 Mr. Hume luive written on this difficult subject, and the reader who 



