286 ASIONID^!. 



both colours mottled on the middle feathers ; chin and below the 

 throat white, rest of lower surface buff ; upper throat with fusi- 

 form black shafts ; breast with broad black stripes passing into the 

 narrow dark shaft-lines and wavy cross-bars of the abdomen, 

 shaft-lines disappearing and the cross-bars growing fainter or 

 occasionally dying out on the legs, vent, and lower tail-coverts. 



Bill horny black ; irides orange-yellow : claws dusky (Hume). 



Length 22; tail 8; wing 15'5 ; tarsus 3 ; bill from gape 1*7. 



Distribution. The Rock Horned Owl is almost, if not entirely, 

 confined to the Indian Peninsula, being one of the commonest 

 Owls of Northern and Central India, except in desert tracts ; less 

 common in the south, wanting in Ceylon. It is found, though not 

 commonly, in Eajputana, Sind, and the Western Punjab, and has 

 been reported to occur in Afghanistan ; it inhabits Kashmir and 

 the lower Himalayas to the westward, though not Nepal or 

 Sikhim ; it is very rare in Lower Bengal and apparently unknown 

 to the eastward, though Blyth states that it occurs in Arrakan. 



Habits, <$fc. This fine Owl haunts rocky hills and ravines, 

 alluvial cliffs, and brushwood, beside rivers and streams, and in 

 flat country groves of trees. It is by no means exclusively noc- 

 turnal, and it lives on rats and mice, birds, lizards, snakes, crabs, 

 and large insects. Its cry is a loud dissyllabic hoot. The 

 breeding-season is from December to April, and from two to four 

 white oval eggs are laid on a rocky ledge or in a cave, or on the 

 ground under a bush or tuft of grass. The eggs measure about 

 2-1 by 1-73. 



1169. Bubo coromandus. The Dusky Horned Owl. 



Strix coromanda, Lath. Ind. Orn. i, p. 53 (1790). 



Urrua coromanda, Hodgs. J.A.S. B. vi, p. 373 ; Jerdon, B. I. i, p. 130 ; 

 id. Ibis, 1871, p. 345; Hume, N. $ E. p. 63; Butler, S. F. iii, 

 p. 450 ; v, p. 217 ; Godw.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xlvii, pt. 2, p. 12. 



Urrua umbrata, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xiv, p. 180 (1845). 



Bubo uinbratus, Blyth, Cat. p. 35. 



Bubo coromandus, Horsf. $ M. Cat. i, p. 75 ; Hume, S. F. i, p. 164 ; 

 Adam, ibid. p. 369 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. ii, p. 35 ; Butler, S. F. vii, 



_ 1 or\ . Tt ..77 ,1'j _ ctm yv T A^i **- ^. . 



C. H. T. Marshall, Ibis, 1884, p. 407 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 66. 

 Ascalaphia coromanda, Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 253 ; Hume, Rough Notes, 

 p. 371 ; A. Anderson, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 81 ; 1876, p. 316 ; Blyth. 

 Birds Burm. p. 65. 



Coloration. Whole plumage above and below greyish brown 

 with dark shaft-stripes, the feathers finely mottled and vermi- 

 culated with whitish ; more white on the lower surface, which is 

 paler than the upper in consequence ; a few white or buff spots 

 on the outer webs of the outer scapulars and on some of the 

 larger and median primary-coverts ; lores white, with black shafts ; 

 aigrettes darker than crown ; quills and tail brown, with pale 

 mottled cross-bands and tips. 



