128 KETUPA CEYLONENSIS. 



Adult male and female. Length to front of cerel9 - 5 to 20-0 inches ; culmen from cere 1-4 to 1*65 ; wing 14-5 to 15-8, 

 expanse 51*0 to 54-3; tail 7 - to 8 - ; tarsus 2 - 5 to 2 - 8 ; mid or outer anterior toe 1*5 to l - 85, claw (straight) 

 0-6 to 0-85 ; height of bill at cere 0-5 to 0-67. 



The above measurements are taken from a series of seven Ceylonese examples. Specimens of both sexes vary in size 

 inter se ; but males appear to be as a rule the larger of the two. Three males measure in the wing 15'3, 15 - 9, 14 - 5 ; 

 four females 14 - 4, 14'5, 15-0, 14-5. In the size of tarsus, foot, and bill there is not the same preponderance in 

 favour of the males. 



Tris fine clear golden yellow ; cere dark olivaceous green ; bill olivaceous green, in some greyish green ; a dark brownish- 

 green patch on the sides of the mandible ; under mandible usually paler than the upper ; tarsi and feet olivaceous 

 greenish, the skin between the reticulations yellowish ; in some examples the entire tarsus is yellowish, with the 

 joints and toes greenish. 



Above light vinaceous brown, darkest on the interscapular region and upper scapulars, and palest on the rump and 

 upper tail-coverts ; the feathers of the head, sides and back of neck with broad mesial streaks, increasing on the 

 back and scapulars to drop-shaped patches of dark brown ; the light portions of the hind-neck feathers cross-rayed 

 with brown : shorter lateral scapulars with white outer webs and dark shaft-stripes ; wing-coverts dark brown, 

 the lesser series edged with light tawny; the greater zone of secondary coverts crossed with interrupted bars of 

 fulvous whitish ; the outer feathers of this and the series above it with large white patches at the tips of the outer 

 webs ; the inner feathers, as well as the tertials and longer scapulars, pale at the outer edges and tipped and 

 mottled in a bar-like form with buff; primary-coverts, primaries, and secondaries dark brown, barred and tipped 

 with dusky buff, paling to white on the outer webs of the longer primaries, and subdued with a brownish hue on 

 the inner webs of all the quill-feathers ; basal portion of the inner webs white ; rump and upper tail-coverts with 

 narrow mesial brown lines, the feathers faintly edged with fulvous ; tail coucolorous with the secondaries, and 

 tipped and crossed with four bars of dusky buff, paling to whitish at the base of the inner webs of the lateral 

 feathers : face tawny brownish, the base of the loral plumes white and the terminal portion of the shafts black ; 

 an orbital fringe of bristly blackish feathers ; ear-tufts concolorous with the crown. 



The feathers of the lower cheeks and at the side of the throat with narrow dark shaft-lines ; throat more or less white 

 (in some more than in others), with narrow shaft-stripes of brown ; breast, flanks, and under surface delicate fawn- 

 colour, darkest on the upper breast, and paling considerably in some on the belly and longer thigh-plumes ; each 

 feather with a deep-brown lanceolate shaft-stripe, and crossed with fine, wavy, brown rays, which are more conspi- 

 cuous on the lower parts than on the breast; thighs pale tawny, unmarked; under tail-coverts lightly striped; 

 lesser under wing-coverts fulvous tawny, with dark brown shaft-stripes widening at the tips ; greater series white 

 at the base, with the terminal portion blackish brown ; white basal portions of the primaries tinged with yellow, 

 as also the under surface of the adjacent bars. 



Obs. The white throat-patch varies in size independently of the general light or dark hue of the under surface, 

 specimens which have markedly fulvous breasts having the white gorge as large as any other. This, then, being 

 a variable character is (although such has been maintained) of no value whatever as a distinguishing feature in the 

 Ceylonese birds from any others. The latter are, however, as a rule smaller than some North-Indian and Burmese 

 specimens ; but this is a constant character of Ceylonese representatives of Indian species. That the Brown Fish- 

 Owl varies in size in India will be seen from the following measurements: — Three males, wing 15 - to 15-7 inches, 

 three females L6-5 to 18*0 (ffume, 'Bough Notes'); two males, wing 10-2 and 16-0 (Chota Nagpur, Ball) • several 

 females 1 I''- 1 1" L5-7 (Irrawaddy delta, Armstrong) ; one female 15-6 (Burmah), and two examples unsexed, 15-3 and 

 L4 - 8 ( Burmah and N. Bengal : measured by myself in British Museum). Two of these last three coincide exactly 

 with Ceylonese specimens in general hue, white throat-patch, and transverse breast-striations ; the third presents 

 an indh idual peculiarity in its very rufescent character throughout, and almost total absence of chest-striations like 

 K.Jlavipes. Lastly, a Cochin-China example in the national collection is quite similar to those from Ceylon. 



Vistributiqn. — This Fish-Owl is very generally diffused throughout the low country, where localities 

 suitable to its habits occur ; but it does not appear to ascend much above the level of the deep valleys of the 

 Kundvan Province. In the western and southern portions of the island it is found near the banks of all the 

 huge rivers, and very often about wet paddy-fields; but it is not so numerous in that division as on the 

 eastern side or in the forests of the northern half, where its chief haunts are the borders of all the inland tanks, 

 both large and small, and the forest-lining of the large rivers. It is found on the sea-coast where the jungle 

 clothes the actual shore, as it does round the magnificent harbour of Trincomalie and at many other localities. 

 In the Seven Korales it is very abundant; I have met with it there, in every sort of locality, from the 



