62 SYRNIIN.E. 



also Colonel Tickell. Neither Colonel Svvinhoe or myself met 

 with it there. 



GENUS, Syrnium, Savigny. 

 The characters are the same as those of the sub-family. 



Syrnium indranee, SyJces. 



63. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 121 ; Butler, Decc an ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 375 ; Bulaca indranee, Sykes ; 

 Hume's Scrap Book, p. 347. 



THE BROWN WOOD OWL. 



Length, 19 to 21 ; wing, 13 to 14 ; tail, 8 to 9 ; tarsus, 2'4. 

 Toes feathered for three-quarters of their length, and with strong 

 scutse beyond; the inner claw is the largest, the outer one 

 about equal to the hind-claw ; the wings reach nearly to the 

 end of the tail. 



Above, hair-brown, darkest on the head and neck, the greater- 

 coverts, scapulars, and tertiaries banded with white, the outer 

 scapulars being almost white with brown bars ; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts also faintly barred with fulvous ; quills brown, 

 barred with pale fulvous on both webs and with narrow whitish 

 bars and a white tip ; disc, black round the eye, with a pale 

 whitish upper edge or supercilium, rufous externally ; ruff 

 brown with some white markings ; throat below the ruff white ; 

 body beneath pale rufous-white, narrowly and closely barred with 

 brown ; quills and tail beneath dusky -brown, with white iJars ; 

 bill pale greenish ; irides deep brown ; claws horny-reddish. 



The Brown Wood Owl appears to be very uncommon, and is 

 confined to the Western Ghats and forests in the vicinity. It 

 has been procured at Ratnagiri and at Mahableshwar. Nothing 

 appears to be known in regard to its nidification ; in fact, 

 Mr. Hume and others seem somewhat to doubt the distinctness 

 of this and S. newarense, but as Jerdon points out the present is 

 a considerably smaller bird. 



Syrnium occellatum, Less. 



65. S. sinense, Lath. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 123 ; 

 Butler, Guzerat ; Stray Feathers, Vol. V, p. 208 ; Deccan, Stray 

 Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 376 ; Hume's Scrap Book, p. 353. 



THE MOTTLED WOOD OWL. 



Length, 17'9 to 19'2; expanse, 45 to 50'5 ; wing, 13 to 15; 

 tail, 7 to 8'5 ; tarsus, 2 to 2*4 ; bill from gape, 1'6 to 17. 



Bill black, paler, and greyish on lower mandible ; eyelids 

 orange ; irides brown, deep in some, lighter in others ; claws 

 sharp, slightly curved, middle claw dilated on inner edge. 



General plumage : above, rich tawny-yellow, the feathers of the 

 head and nape spotted with black and white, each plume having a 

 blackish tip, and crossed by an interrupted white band ; feathers of 









' V\ 



