342 NOTES ON SOME BIRDS COLLECTED ON THE NILGHIRIS 
banded only on their outer webs with brown, which becomes 
paler and less developed on each succeeding feather, the two 
outermost feathers on each side being pure unsullied white ; 
the disc, ruff, and entire lower parts, including wing-. 
lining, axillaries, tibial, and tarsal plumes, pure white, with 
the following exceptions: there is a deep brown spot at the 
inner angle of the eye; the ruff, which is otherwise of a pure 
satiny white, is slightly tinged with buff; there isa tinge of the 
same colour on the upper breast, and each feather of the breast 
and abdomen has a small brown triangular spot ; the sides 
of the shoulder and wing, along carpal joint, buff; the feathers 
of each side of the neck with a small triangular spot at the 
tip. 
63.—Syrnium indranee, Sykes. The Brown Wood- 
Owl. 
This Owl is not uncommon on the Nilghiris and their slopes, but 
is less common in the Wynaad. Sometimes it is found in pairs, 
sometimes singly. It generally keeps to the sholas during the 
day, coming out by dusk; but [ have flushed it from among 
rocks. It is very fond of perching on the roof of a house at 
night and hooting, remaining often for an hour or more, 
hence it is that it is so dreaded by the natives, who believe 
that such visits are bad omens, portending the death of one 
of the inmates of the house. There is nothing very dreadful 
in the sound of its hoot, which is not unlike that of Syrnium 
nivicolum, only consisting of four hoots instead of only a 
double hoot. I have heard the hoot many hundreds of times, 
but I have never heard it utter the doleful cries attributed to 
it by Captain Legge and others. It seems to see well during 
the day, and once disturbed is by no means easy of approach. 
It is not unfrequently flushed when beating the sholas for 
ame. 
f The following are the dimensions recorded in the flesh of 
two fine females :—Length, 18:5, 19°03; expanse, 42, 45; 
tail, $0, 8:3, wing, 13°5,13°6; tarsus, 2:1, 2°3 ; bill from gape, 
16 ; weight, 22 and 26 ozs. Irides dark brown ; bill bluish 
horny ; exposed portion of feet bluish fleshy; claws pale 
brownish horny. In this species the colour of the disc appears 
to vary considerably. In a specimen in our museum from 
Ceylon, the outer margin is a dark ochraceous. In one of my 
specimens the ochraceous of the dise is very much paler than 
in the Ceylon specimen, while in my other specimen the 
ochraceous is still paler, and is closely transversely banded 
with black. This barring of the dise is probably a sign of 
nonage, as the specimen that has it is apparently not quite 
adult. 
