122 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



along the Western ghats in the Wjniaad and Coorg. It has also 

 been sent from Goomsoor. It is quite nocturnal in its habits, and, 

 according to Layard, utters the most doleful cries. Specimens 

 from Malacca have the disk more rufous than those from 

 S. India, but are of the same size, and otherwise not distin- 

 guishable, I think. 



64. Syrnium newarense, Hodgson. 



Blyth, Cat. 164 (in part) — Horsf. Cat. 101, (in part) — Newar 

 of the Nepalese. 



The Nepal Browx Wood Owl. 



Descr. — Upper parts rich brown ; the quills and tail feathers 

 ■with bars of whitj brown ; beneath, pale rusty, with numerous 

 narrow brown bands ; inner scapulars the same ; throat, white. 

 Very similar to the last, but much larger and stouter in all its pro- 

 portions ; the scapulars are less banded, and the brown bars on the 

 lower surface tend to coalesce and form a pectoral band ; the disk 

 is black all round the eye, whitish externally, and grizzled on 

 the anterior bristles ; the wings are nearly three inches shorter than 

 the tail, and the toes are more feathered than in the last; bill, 

 greenish horny ; irides dark brown. 



Length 2 feet, wing 18 inches ; ext. 50; tail, 9| ; tarsus 2| ; 

 mid-toe and claw, 3| ; weight 2-^-tbs. " 



The very great difference in size of the Himalayan birds, which 

 must weigh fully double the bird from Southern India, together 

 ■with the points above noticed, have induced me to consider this 

 species as distinct from Indrani, and though Mr. Blyth, in his 

 Catalogue, has joined them, yet I see that in his prospectus of 

 Indian Ornithology (of which it is to be regretted so little was 

 published) he says, that he strongly suspects that there are 

 two races of this bird, one of larger size, peculiar to the Himalayas, 

 the other alike in Central and Southern India, Ceylon, and the 

 Malayan peninsula. 



Mr. Hodgson states that they tenant the interior of woods, and 

 never approach houses, and that they are most common in the 



