Stray Notes ok Indian Birds.



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Andamanese bird looks very different from the dark Galapagos

Barn-Owl (Strixpnnctatissoma) of which there was a specimen in

the London Zoo some time ago, for this individual was a sort of

bantam Barn-Owl, much smaller, but preserving the true slender

proportions. I should almost feel inclined to call the Andam¬

anese form ( S.flammea deroepstorfii ) a true species ; it is certainly

tlie most distinct race of Barn-Owl I have seen. Neither of the

Indian Museum specimens, by the way, had the pectination of

the claw of the third toe characteristic of Barn-Owls in general.


Grass-Owl. Strix Candida .


Two young received and reared in the Calcutta Zoo had

the facial disk vinous or brownish pink ; their down was buff, not

white as in the young Barn-Owl.


Short-eared Owl. Asio accipitrimis.


I saw a specimen flying round the ship I was on in the Bed

Sea, in the autumn of 1897 1 it was in the day-time, and I noticed

it carried its feet extended behind.


Spotted Owlet. Athene brama.


I observed a couple pairing in the Museum grounds in

January, 1897. The male fluttered his wings, but appeared also

to take hold with the bill. They kept up a low chattering note.


Collared Pigmy Owlet. Glaucidium brodiei.


Mr. B. B. Osmaston had a pair of these in captivity ; the

larger bird, presumably the hen, killed the male one day by

gripping him by the throat with her foot and choking him, and

then showed a desire to eat him, although they had been fed.

She was afterwards brought to England.


Osprey. Pandion haliaetus.


I think systematists make too much of the supposed

reversible outer toe of this bird as an Owl-like characteristic.

I11 a specimen they had at the London Zoo, in 1901, I noticed

that as the bird sat on a thick perch this toe was merely at right

angles with the middle one, not reversed, and the claw was

turned forward, resting flat on the perch ; whereas in an Owl the

set of this fourth toe is decidedly backwards.


Small White Scavenger Vulture. Neophron ginginianus.


I saw plenty of these birds about Mussoorie in the summer



