SYRNIIN^. 121 



oblique, elliptic, and tumid ; first six quills emarginate and serrate ; 

 toes feathered. 



63. Syrnium indranee, Sykes. 



Strix, apud Sykes, Cat. 20 — Blyth, Cat. 164 — HoRSF., Cat. 

 101 — Gray, 111. Gen. of Birds, PL 14 — B. monticola, Jerdcn, 

 Suppl. Cat. 42 bis. 



The Brown Wood Owl. 



Descr. — Above, hair brown, darkest on the head and neck, 

 the greater coverts, scapulars, and tertiaries, banded with white, the 

 outer scapulars being almost white with brown bars ; rump and 

 upper tail coverts, also faintly barred with fulvous ; quills brown, 

 barred with pale fulvous on both webs, and with narrow whitish 

 bars, and a Avhitetip; disk, black round the eye, with a pale whitish 

 upper edge or supercilium, rufous externally ; ruff brown, with some 

 white markings; throat below the ruff white; beneath, pale fulvous 

 white, narrowly and closely barred with brown ; quills and tail 

 beneath dusky brown, with white bars ; bill pale greenish ; irides 

 deep brown ; claws horny reddish. 



Length 19 to 21 inches, wing, 13 to 14; tail 8 to 9; tarsus not 

 2^; mid toe and claw, 2|-; toes feathered three quarters of their 

 length, with strong scuta beyond. The inner claw is the largest, 

 the outer one about equal to the hind claw. The wings reach 

 nearly to the end of tail. 



A specimen from Goomsoor has the disk mottled white and 

 brown, the bristles, pointing to the base of the bill, being grizzled 

 black. 



This species, first described by Sykes, has generally been 

 considered the same as Hodgson's Bulaca newarensis from Nepal ; 

 but it is considerably smaller, and differs otherwise, as will be 

 pointed out when noticing that bird. 



The Brown Wood Owl is found throughout Southern India, in 

 Ceylon, and the Malayan peninsula; but has not yet been procured 

 in Burmah. It frequents the forest only, and is most common at a 

 considerable elevation. Col. Sykes found it in the dense woods of 

 the ghats. I procured it first on the Neilgherries, and afterwards 



Q 



