118 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



It hunts entirely by night, not coming forth till it is quite dark, 

 and lives on rats, mice, shrews, &c. More than once one has 

 flown into the room in which I was sitting with open doors and 

 windows, after a rat that had entered. It breeds both in holes in 

 trees and buildings. 



The next species has been placed in a separate division, sub- 

 gen. Scelostrix, Kaup, Glaux Blyth. It differs by the tarsus 

 being very long and even more nude than in the last ; and the 

 wings also being longer. 



61. Strix Candida, Tickell. 



Jerdon, 111. Ind. Orn. PI. 30 — S. longimembris, Jerdon, Cat. 

 38 — Glaux javanica, apud Blyth, Cat. 173. S. Capensis, Horsf., 

 Cat. 97. 



The Grass Owl. 



Descr. — Above, tawny yellow, the feathers all broadly ended 

 with brown, and a white spot at the tip ; or brown, with a white 

 terminal spot, and yellow at the base ; quills fulvous yellow, with 

 distinct brown bars ; tail pale yellow, with four dark brown bars, 

 the terminal one mottled at the ending ; disk whitish, or fulvous 

 white, with a dark brown spot at the inner angle of the eye ; rulf 

 dark fulvous ; beneath, yellowish white, with small brown specks ; 

 irides very dark brown ; bill horny ; legs livid. 



Length 14 inches ; wing 14 ; tail 4^ ; tarsus, 3^ ; mid toe and 

 claw, 2^. Tarsus and toes with a few scattered bristles, scarcely 

 plumed at the knee. The wings reach three inches beyond tail ; 

 the claws are blunter and less curved than in the last. 



The Grass Owl is found throughout the greater part of India, but 

 thinly scattered, and by no means plentiful. I first procured it on 

 the grassy side of a hill on the Neilgherries, at about 6000 feet of 

 elevation. I afterwards obtained it in the Carnatic, and in Central 

 India, and it was procured by Tickell in the same district, and 

 probably occurs also in the N. W. Provinces, for Mr. Phillips 

 p. Z. S., under the name of Strix javanica, mentions its living in 

 long grass, and to be found in abundance some miles from Hodal. 



