468 Novelties. — Heteroglaux Bletvitti. 



Heteroglaux Blewitti, Sp. Nov. 



General appearance not unlilce that of Athene brama, but size larger and 

 wings shorter. Whole head, bacJc, and sides of neck, interscapulary 

 region, and scapulars, unspotted dark earth brown ; a very strongly 

 marked, dark brown, transverse throat bar. 



Mr. Blewitt tells me that he has been for long" vainly en- 

 deavouring to procure a specimen of this owl^ which frequents 

 the densest forests of the western portion of the Tributary 

 Mehals; and is shy to a degree. At last on the 14th December, 

 187'2, he shot a fine female at Busnah, in the Phooljan State. 

 Most of my Indian readers know how long, and zealously, Mr. 

 Blewitt has devoted himself to ornithology, and how eminently 

 successful he has been as an oologist, and will not therefore 

 wonder at my dedicating to him this new and remarkable spe- 

 cies, which he has hitherto been the only person to obtain, as also 

 the first to discriminate. 



The following are the dimensions and description of a female 

 of this new species, the generic characters of which are alone, I 

 think, sufficient to distinguish it from all other known owls. 



Length, 9 '5 ; expanse, 22'5; wing, 5'8 ; tarsus, 0'91 ; mid- 

 toe, to root of claw, 0*9 ; 4th, or longest primary, exceeds 1st 

 secondary by 1*2 j bill, straight from nostril to point, 0'55 ; tail 

 from vent, 3"9 ; wings, when closed, reach to within 0*5 of end 

 of tail ; foot, length, 2-1 ; breadth, 2"3 ; weight, 8*5 ozs. 



The lores, a line over the eye, a broad line under the eye, and a 

 triang'ular patch immediately behind the eye, white ; the bristles 

 of the lores, with the terminal halves, black; the longest bristles 

 reach just to the tip of the bill. From the gape, runs a stripe 

 backwards, enveloping the whole of the ear coverts, in colour a 

 rather dark earth brown, obsoletely barred with albescent ; chin 

 and throat, and the sides of the lower mandible, below the stripe 

 above mentioned, pure white ; across this from the base of the 

 lower mandible, on one side to the base on the other, runs a 

 conspicuous, transverse, dark brown band. Forehead, top, and 

 back of the head, back, and sides of the neck, scapulars, and 

 interscapulary region an uniform, rather dark earth brown ; 

 on lifting the feathers of the back of the neck, and on lifting 

 similarly the scapulars, each feather is found to have a white 

 bar about mid-way between base and tip, or in some cases nearer 

 the tip, but these are not visible when the feathers are in repose. 

 The wings are hair brown, darkest on the primaries, secondaries, 

 and their greater coverts, and more nearly concolorous with the 



