NEW SPECIES OF STRIGINE FAMILY. 169 



and the inner and concealed scapulary feathers, pale sordid rusty, with very 

 many (12 to 14 per plume) transverse narrow bands of a bright brown, 

 darkened on the lower edge ; brows rufous-hoary ; margin round the eye 

 and space between eyes and nostrils black, a white transverse zone on the 

 throat below the disc ; breast darker than the body ; quills internally 

 towards their bases, bright buff and many of the upper wing coverts, barred 

 internally ; iris dark brown ; bill bluish towards base ; greenish horn 

 yellow towards tip ; talons horn grey with blackish tips : 20 to 21 inches 

 by 48 to 50 between the wings. Weight 2J to 2f lbs. Sexes alike both 

 as to size and colours. 



Remark. These birds are entirely nocturnal : they tenant the interior 

 of woods and never approach houses. They are commonest in the central 

 region — rare in the northern — unknown to the southern. 



In the present state of Strigine classification it is impossible to say to 

 what genus or subgenus our birds should be referred. They may be 

 Nyctece, or Ululee, or a tertium quid: and at all events, the bill is neither 

 short nor arched from the base, as (for example) in Otus, in Scops, and in 

 Noclua. I have set them down in my note book as the type of a new 

 genus or subgenus under the Newar generic title of Sulaca, with the more 

 significant of the characters above given in detail. 



Genus Bubo ? Species new. Cavearius nobis. — Hole-haunting Owl 

 nobis. 



Form. Bill and nostrils as in the last. Disc smaller and incomplete 

 over the eye, but still of considerable size. Opening of the ears ovoid, not 

 valved, smaller rather than in the last, but still large : the auditory canal 

 opened subcentrally on the posteal side and crossed by a membranous band 

 couch, IyV inch long. Feet as in the last, but the tarsi rather higher and 

 slenderer, and the talons not channeled below, but merely squared. Wings 

 longer and less gradated ; H to 2 inches less the tail ; tertiaries and sca- 

 pulars both long, subequal, and falling within 2 inches of the ends of the 

 great primaries ; the latter not bowed though soft and broad Avebbcd ; 3d 

 and 4th quills subequal and longest ; 1st, scarcely \h inch less than the 3d, 



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