1845.] or little known species of Birds. 185 



being spotless deep rufous. A Cingalese example, procured by 

 H. R. H. Prince Waldemar of Prussia, had the entire back and wings 

 deep rufous-bay ; while the pale bars on the head were only a little 

 more rufescent than in Ath. radiatus. Ath. castanopterus, from India 

 as well as Java, is mentioned in Mr. Gray's list of British Museum Rap- 

 tores ; and it is also stated to occur in the Tenasserim Provinces. 



5. Ath. Sonnerati, (Tern.) Non. vidi*. 



6. Ath. brama, (Tern.) ; Noctua indica, Franklin ; N. tarayensis, 

 Hodgson; Strix persica, (?), Nouv. Diet. oVHist. Nat , vii., 26.f Very 

 common in Lower Bengal, and in India generally. 



A Noctua auribarbis is mentioned by Mr. Hodgson, J. A. S. vi., 

 369 ; and an Ath. badia, Hodgson, in Mr. G. R. Gray's list of the 

 Raptorial birds in the British Museum. These remain to be de- 

 scribed. 



Syrnium nivicolum, Hodgson, n. s. This so nearly resembles 

 certain non-rufous specimens which I have seen of the European S. 

 aluco, that I even suspected the identity of the Himalayan and the 

 British birds, until a second specimen (presented to t|ie Society by 

 Mr. Jerdon) repeating the characters of the one which Mr. Hodgson 

 took with him to England, inclines me now to the opinion that they 

 are distinct ; the present being also decidedly a larger bird. The 

 length of Mr. Hodgson's specimen was about seventeen inches, of wing 

 eleven and a half, and tail seven and a quarter ; tarse two inches : and 

 I took the following brief description of it. " Colour of the upper 

 parts mingled brown and blackish ; rather minutely mottled, produc- 

 ing a dark brown ensemble ; head and neck tawny or fulvous- brown, 

 with dark mottling at tips of feathers ; a streak above each eye, 

 ascending from the facial disk, and the mesial part of the crown, be- 

 tween these streaks, blackish. Under parts bright tawney-brown, 

 mingled with dark brown and whitish : feathered tarsi and toes fulves- 



* " Inhabits India. Length eleven inches ; all the upper-parts of the body are 

 reddish-brown, the head being adorned with small white spots, and the wing-coverts 

 with large spots of the same : the quills and tail-feathers are like the back ; the space 

 round the eyes is reddish-white, as well as the face and throat : all the under-parts 

 are white, transversely but distantly barred with brown : the down on the tarsi and 

 toes is red : the beak and claws are yellow." — Stephens. 



f Ath. brama is common about the foot of the mountains near the town of Erzeroura. 

 Proc, Zool, Soc. 1839, p. 119. 



