syrnium indranee, Sykes. 345 



not until tbe 30th November, when the bird was about eight 

 months old> that the last immature feather disappeared from just 

 above the right eye. When the dark brown of the forehead and 

 vertex were fully acquired, the white mark just above the base 

 of the bill became noticeable, but previous to that time it was 

 not distinguishable from the rest of the surrounding parts. 



When fully adult the bill was pale blue with bluish white 

 tips, and a dusky blue streak along the ridge ; cere dusky 

 bluish; bare portion of the toes bluish, at the sides bluish 

 grey ; foot beneath fleshy ; claws bluish white at their bases, 

 darkening into brown at the tips ; iris sepia brown. The 

 measurements taken after the bird was killed (it was a female) 

 were as follows : — Length, 18 inches ; wing, 13^ ; extent, 43^ ; 

 tail, 7^ ; tarsus, 2^ ; mid toe, from base, If; claw, straight, - 9 ; 

 bill from gape to tip, straight, 1^. 



It would be purposeless to take up room with a description 

 in full of the adult plumage, but I will remark that after the 

 first moult the wings and tail were darker than those of the 

 first year, inasmuch as the light barrings instead of being 

 ochreous were dark greyish. The new quills made their appear- 

 ance in April, and by the middle of the following month the 

 first new primary was full grown, and I noticed about this time 

 that the feathers of the under-surface were much more fulvous 

 or ochreous when first acquired than they were afterwards, the 

 hue becoming greyish with time. 



I will now comment on the habits of the bird, which to a 

 naturalist were most interesting. When young its powers of 

 vision at nights did not seem so perfect as I should have 

 expected. Being exceedingly tame and unwilling to use its 

 wings, I kept it in a box in the corner of a somewhat 

 rude barrack-room, which I was occupying myself for the time 

 being. In the bottom of this I placed some straw for it to rest 

 on, but unlike diurnal Raptors* it persisted in perchino- all its 

 time, taking up its abode on the edge of the box. When tired 

 it would lower the body until its breast rested on the wood, and 

 in this position, with its head stretched out, it would remain for 

 half an hour at a time. At sunset it became somewhat lively, 

 snapping its bill loudly when approached, and displayed at such 

 times as the light decreased and objects became more percepti- 

 ble to its vision, the singular habit of revolving or rotating and 



* The reversible hind toe enabled him to hold on to anything, however small and 

 perch with ease when quite young. A young Limncetiis cristatellus which I reared 

 evinced the greatest objection to perching, always overbalancing itself when it tried 

 it; it passed all its time, until three months old, in a recumbent position in its bed of 

 straw. 



B 



