ASIONIN.E. 63 



the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and upper tail-coverts beautifully 

 mottled and speckled with dusky and white ; quills tawny at their 

 base, dusky at the tip, with pale mottled bands ; inner webs tawny, 

 with brown bands ; tail much the same, the mottled bars on both 

 webs of the centre tail-feathers, but on the outer web and tip only 

 of the others ; disc mottled white, brown, and fulvous ; the ruff 

 dark-brown, beneath the chin whitish ; the rest of the body 

 beautifully banded white and brown, each feather being white, 

 with numerous narrow bars of brown ; tarsal feathers the same ; 

 the toes clad nearly to the end. Some specimens are much 

 tinted with fulvous beneath. 



The Mottled Wood Owl is not uncommon in the Deccan, and 

 it has been obtained in Guzerat. I procured it at Neemuch in 

 Central India, but it has not, as yet, been recorded from Sind. 



It is a permanent resident where found, and breeds during 

 the month of March ; the eggs, two in number, are deposited in 

 a cavity in a tree, or in tne depression at the fork of two large 

 branches. There is no nest to speak of, except, perhaps, a few 

 dead leaves that appear to have fallen there by accident ; the 

 eggs are rather roundish ovals, white in color, occasionally with a 

 faint tinge of cream ; they measure 2 inches in length by 

 about 17 in breadth. 



SUB-FAMILY, Asioninse. 



Head large, with two aigrettes, or plumes of lengthened feathers 

 on each side of the forehead ; orifice of the ears large, lunate, 

 operculate ; wings long, second quill longest, and third quill sub- 

 equal to it ; tail moderate, or longish, nearly even ; facial disc 

 nearly perfect ; bill short, strong, curved from the base ; upper 

 mandible sometimes festooned, well protected by bristles ; tarsus 

 stout, moderate, or short, feathered, as are the toes as far as the 

 scales in front of the nails, which are sub-equal. 



GENUS, Asio, Stride. 

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



Asio otus, Lin. 



67. Otus vulgaris, Flem. Jerdon's Birds of India, Yol. I, p. 125 ; 



Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 99 ; Hume's Scrap 



Book, p. 361. 



THE LONG-EARED OWL. 



Length, 14 to 16 ; expanse, 36 to 40 ; wing, 11 to 12'5 ; tail, 

 5-5 to 6 ; tarsus, T4 to T6 ; bill, 11. 



Bill blackish-brown or dark -horny ; cere fleshy ; claws blackish- 

 horny ; irides from bright yellow to orange. 



Above : the forehead finely mottled, dusky and tawny ; the ear- 

 tufts, about 175 inches long, deep brown, edged with tawny ; the 

 disc pale tawny, with a narrow black stripe along the inner 

 side of the eye ; the ruff blackish ; the head, neck, and breast 



