CASSIN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF OWLS. . 97 



External webs of primaries with alternate bands of pale and darker rufous brown ; 

 internal webs much darker, with nearly black bands alternating with others slightly- 

 paler, which latter are mottled with black towards the extremities of the quills. 

 Exposed ends of the secondaries rufous brown, with large pale spots on the shafts 

 approaching the sagittate form, and with their black borders extending into transverse 

 narrow bands. 



Plumage around the eyes and the long bristle-like feathers at the base of the bill 

 dark chesnut brown, the latter freckled with black, between the eye and the ear 

 whitish, with transverse lines and broadly tipped with deep rufous brown. Feathers 

 of the ruff white at their bases, with narrow transverse lines of deep rufous, but 

 presenting a broad subterminal band of pure white, every feather terminated with a 

 semicircular or lunular band of bright rufous brown. 



Front and superciliary region white, the feathers of the former with their shafts 

 and with some minute marks of very dark brown ; superciliary feathers with well 

 defined tips of nearly black. Shorter or anterior feathers of the ear-like tufts white, 

 with minute transverse lines and freckles of rufous brown ; longer feathers (of the 

 tufts) brown on their external and white on their internal webs, transversely lined 

 and tipped with darker brown. 



General colors of the under surface of the body very pale rufous and sordid 

 yellowish white. Breast with every feather having about five to seven very narrow 

 transverse lines more or less distinctly defined, of blackish brown and minutely and 

 irregularly dotted with the same color. Abdominal region with these lines less 

 numerous, many of the feathers having several irregularly-shaped though rather 

 rounded and sagittate spots of nearly black. Tarsi pale whitish rufous. 



Tail same rufous brown as the general upper parts of the body, with alternate 

 bands of darker and paler shades, in some instances the paler band on the external 

 opposite to the darker band on the internal web. 



Bill and toes yellow. 



Very young. (Wings and tail more fully developed than the other plumage.) 

 Upper surface of the head and body pale yellowish and sordid rufous, every feather 

 with several narrow transverse dark lines. Breast and belly darker, with the spots 

 more distinctly rounded and occupying the whole inferior surface ; wings and tail 

 paler than in the more adult bird. 



Hab. — Malacca. 



Obs. — Three specimens from Malacca are in the collection of the Academy. I am 

 acquainted with no other species with which this can be readily confounded. 



25 



