272 



1876, p. 130) it is common near Kashghar and Yarkand during the whole winter, and he also 

 observed it at Sanju in August. It is, he adds, a permanent resident in the country, and breeds 

 there; it feeds on mice, lizards, and beetles. He observed it flying about freely during the 

 daytime, but was told that it is chiefly nocturnal in its habits. Col. Biddulph also obtained it 

 at Kashghar in March. Mr. Blanford states (Faun, of Brit. Ind., Birds, iii. p. 304) that it " occurs 

 in China, Mongolia, Yarkand, and Afghanistan, is common at Kandahar, and has been obtained 

 at Quetta, and also in some of the valleys near Peshawar. Two specimens in the British Museum 

 are labelled Tibet." Col. Prjevalski (" B. of Mongolia &c," in Rowley's Orn. Misc. ii. p. 155) met 

 with it " throughout Mongolia, but only rarely at Koko-nor and Northern Tibet. In Mongolia 

 it frequents the lofty and hilly steppes, which abound with small rodents ; whilst in Ala-shan we 

 often met with it in the sacsaulnics on the high but woodless mountains. In the open steppes it 

 keeps to the clayey shores of brooks or rivers, and inhabits also deserted habitations of man, 

 which are rather numerous in Ordos and Ala-shan." According to Mr. Pleske, the brothers 

 Grum-Grzimailo obtained numerous examples at Luktschin-kyr, Chami, Dshigda, and Taschar, 

 and a few at Chun-fy-tschin (in the Gantschoii district) and in the Alps near Ssaning (Tschan-chu, 

 Ljandshasjana Pass). Abbe Armand David states (Ois. de la Chine, p. 37) that it is common in 

 China and Mongolia, and he frequently met with it in winter from Pekin to Southern Chensi, 

 but further south it is replaced by Athene whitelyi. It has only been twice recorded from 

 Siberia — once by Dr. Radde on the Onon in Dauria, and subsequently by Dybowski and 

 Godlewski, who obtained three specimens in Darasun, where it breeds on the banks of 

 the Onon. 



In its habits this Owl closely resembles, as might be supposed, its near ally Athene glaux. 

 Col. Prjevalski says that in Mongolia it frequents the open steppes, where it affects the clayey 

 shores of brooks and rivers. " We could often hear, both by night and day," he says, " this 

 Owl's solitary cry, which used to frighten the superstitious Mongols, who believe that these 

 sounds are uttered by the murdered people who formerly dwelt there. Sometimes the Owl would 

 sit during the night on the top of our tent, which usually was pitched in a plain, and would keep 

 on calling so long that we had to frighten it away." 



Mr. Zarudny found it breeding in Transcaspia, and took nests in a hollow tree, in a fissure in 

 a ravine, and in the deserted hole of a fox — two containing young birds, and one with eggs. The 

 eggs, four in number, he describes as being spherical in shape, white in colour, and glossy in 

 texture, measuring 3*2 to 3 - 5 millimetres by 2 - 6 to 2 - 9. 



As the present species differs from A. glaux only in the dense feathering of the legs, and 

 especially of the toes, I have not deemed it necessary to give a figure of it. 



The specimen described is in my own collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined, besides the series in the British 

 Museum, the following specimen : — 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser. 



a, (J ad. Cliamij January 10th, 1890 {Grum-Grzimaild) . 



