40 A FIRST LIST OF THE 



As for Whiteleyi, I can scarcely believe that it deserves specific 

 separation ; except for the comparative fewness of the marking's 

 upon the feathers of the wing and tail, it is said to be precisely 

 similar to cuculoides. The main distinction, we are told, is that " the 

 tail has only six narrow white bars, one terminal, and the other at 

 the extreme base of the feathers, so that only four remain to con- 

 stitute the conspicuous barring of the rectriees." Doubtless, this 

 is the case with most of the Burmese birds ; but so also is it in the 

 case of a great number of the Himalayan specimens : and as 

 regards the paucity or otherwise of the markings on the flight 

 feathers, this is a thing that varies more or less in every 

 specimen. 



Captain Feilden says : " I have always found this Owl in the 

 same kind of watercourses as the Scop's Owls during the hot- 

 weather, but during and after the rains they perch on tall, thick, 

 creeper-covered trees. I found a young bird in what I believe to 

 have been an old hole of the great Black Woodpecker, about half- 

 way up a moderately -sized tree/' 



Mr. Oates says this species is " common away from the Irra- 

 waddy. I did not find it in the Evergreen Forests of the Pegu 

 Hills, but it may occur there. 



" It comes out invariably at sunset, and sits on a tree till it is 

 dark enough, for its taste. It is not nearly so vivacious as 

 pulchra. Ovaria of females at the end of February extremely 

 large. A male measured: Length, 8*65; expanse, 20; tail, 

 from vent, 3'15; wing, 5 - 8 ; bill, from gape, 0"9. A female : 

 Length, 9 - 3; expanse, 20; tail, 3*05; wing, 5 - 8; bill, from 

 gape, 0*84; tarsus, l'l; cere, 022; iris, bright yellow; eyelids, 

 yellowish white ; cere, brown ; bill, pale dirty green ; the tip 

 of upper mandible, yellow ; legs and feet, dusky greenish yellow ; 

 claws, brown. In another bird the bill was uniform, dull, dirty 

 green, wanting the pale tip, and the eyelids were plumbeous." 



81.— Ninox hirsutus, Cuv. et Tem. 



Several specimens quite identical with Indian birds have been 

 sent by Captain Feilden and Mr. Oates. Captain Feilden says : 

 " The Hawk-Owl is not common at Thayetmyo. The note is like 

 the mew of a small kitten ; it was only uttered a few times just 

 before the night became quite dark. I noticed the pupil of this 

 bird expanding and contracting many hours after death. A female 

 measured : Length, 12 - 25 ; feet, yellowish; cere, greenish plum- 

 beous ; ridge of culmen, pale plumbeous ; bill, greenish grey ; 

 eyelid, purplish-black ; iris, bright yellow.'" 



Mr. Oates says : " Not uncommon here. I never heard the 

 doleful cries described by Jerdon and others. A male measured : 

 Length, 12'2; expanse, 28'5; tail, from vent, 5 - 5 ; wing, 8'4; 

 bill, from gape, - 91; tarsus, 1*15; the iris, bright yellow; 



