132 BUBO NIPALENSIS. 



secondaries banded with smoky grey across both webs, the inner paling to buff at the edges ; tail deeply tipped 

 and crossed with fine narrow mottled bars of dusky buff ; these widen and are paler towards the base. 

 Lores and facial disk greyish ; chin, throat, and under surface whitish, washed here and there on the breast with buff ; 

 chin and ruff-feathers barred narrowly with brown : fore neck and chest banded with regular bars of the same, the 

 distance between which increases on the upper breast; on the breast, pectoral plumes, flanks, and under tail- 

 coverts the bars increase in width, take a pointed or slightly spear-shaped form, and are very far apart, but are 

 three in number, as on the chest ; bars of the under tail-coverts paler and narrower than those of the breast ; tarsi 

 narrowly barred with brown ; under wiug-coverts buffy white, marked with bar-like spots and pointed bars of 

 brown. 



Ohs. The above is a description of the largest and most mature bird* I have met with. One, probably in the plumage 

 of the second year, has the barrings of the upper surface more buff and generally broader, the markings of the head 

 and hind neck, especially, showing a more yellow hue than in the old bird : the scapulars have more of the buff 

 hue on the inner webs, the markings of the wing-coverts and barring of the tail show the same characteristic ; the 

 bands on the throat and round the edge of the disk are more coalescent, those on the chest closer together, and 

 there is a more sudden increase in the width of the interspaces on the breast than in the above example ; tarsi not 

 so strongly barred. 



Young. The nestling has the iris brown: bill fleshy white; feet dull yellowish, claws dusky. 



Above and beneath white; the head and hind neck narrowly barred with brown ; the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts 

 openlv banded with the same and tinged with rufescent buff, the edges of the bars whitish, contrasted with the buff 

 ground-colour : quills dark brown, with handsomely mottled bars of smoky grey ; tertials whitish, barred similarly 

 to the scapulars ; forehead and disk white; orbital fringe dark ; tail smoky grey, banded with blackish brown ; 

 beneath, the under surface is tinged with greyish, and marked throughout with narrow, wavy, blackish-grey cross 

 bars ; legs white, unbarred. 



Bird of the year. After putting off the nestling dress, the bill becomes more olivaceous ; the upper surface is light 

 glossy sepia-brown, with all the pale markings bolder and yellower than in the adult; the bars on the head, hind 

 neck, shoulder of the wing, and least wing-coverts are greyish buff ; on the scapulars and greater secondary wing- 

 coverts they are rich buff, broad and mottled conspicuously with brown : primaries and secondaries tipped and 

 barred with pale brownish, paling on the inner webs into brownish buff; basal portion of primaries buff; tail 

 brown, tipped deeply and banded with four bars of buff, mottled with the ground-colour. 



Lores, face, and ear-coverts greyish, the former with blackish shaft-lines, and the latter with indistinct cross lines of 

 brown ; fore neck and sides of throat whitish, changing on the breast and under surface into buffy white ; ruff and 

 neck as far as the centre of the chest barred with brown more closely than in the adult, ou the breast the space 

 between the bars increases gradually to the lower parts, and on the flanks and pectoral plumes the markings are 

 pointed ; legs barred narrowly with undefined marks of brownish ; under wing-coverts buff, barred like the under 

 surface. 



')/'.<. The distinctive characteristic of the immature bird is the difference in width of the chest and breast interspaces, 

 giviug the appearance to a casual observer of a coalescence on the former region. Whether this character or not 

 led to the distinctive name pectoralis of Jerdon for the South-Indian bird I am unable to say ; it is common to 

 nearly all Ceylonese young birds, the only exception to the rule that I know of being that of the young male (?) 

 in the collection of Mr. Holdsworth. The ground-colour of the under surface in this is more fulvescent than in 

 other birds which have come under my notice ; the bars are not spear-shaped ou the lower parts, and approach 

 gradually from there up to the chest, where they are very close together. Mr. Hume observes (' Stray Feathers,' 

 vol. i. p. 431) that the markings on the chest are variable in Himalayan birds also. 

 \- regards the supposed distinctness of the Nepaul form from the Ceylonese, after giving considerable time and 

 attention to the subject, and examining the specimens of the former in the British and Norwich Museums, I must 

 support Mr. Hume in considering them identical. Ceylonese birds are, doubtless, as a rule smaller than northern ; 

 and guided by this, together with the peculiar feature exhibited in the widely-separated pointed bars of the lower 

 parts, I was disposed for some time to follow Mr. Holdsworth in diagnosing them as H. pectoralis ; but the fact 

 of the old birds, such as the fine example shot by Mr. Laurie, and two others which I have seen in Messrs. Whyte 

 and Co.'s establishment, coinciding exactly with Himalayan examples, settles the matter, I think, beyond dispute. 

 Ln such the character of the under-surface barring, the coloration of the scapulars, and even the diminishing of 



* In the possession of Mr. T. Butler, Knighton House, Clapton ; shot by Mr. Forbes Laurie in Kalebokka. 



