NEW SPECIES OF STRIGINE FAMILY. 



173 



I beg to propose for it the name HuJma, latinised from TluJm, which is the 

 common appellative of all Strigine birds in Nepal, At present I mean to 

 consider it as a species of Buho and to name it specifically Nipalensis, it 

 being found in all parts of the Kingdom. 



It tenants the interior of umbrageous woods, and by reason of the feeble 

 light penetrating them even at noon-day, it is enabled to quest subdiurnal- 

 ly in such situations. It preys on pheasants, hares, rats, snakes, and some- 

 times on the fawns of the Ratwa and GhoraL The sexes nearly resemble 

 each other ; but the young every where, and the old too in the Northern 

 region, are more blanched than in maturity. The bill is equal to the head, 

 straightened beyond the cere, abruptly and largely hooked, very strong, 

 and furnished with an accipitrine festoon ; its lower mandible deeply 

 notched and vertically truncated at the tip ; the tomise, obtuse and free 

 towards the gape — trenchant, deeply locked, and internally scarped, to- 

 wards the point. 



The nares are placed high up and near to the anteal edge of the cere ; 

 their aperture a broad ellipse, simple, transverse, with an aspect obliquely 

 to the front. 



Wings to 2 inches less than the tail ; 5tli quill longest ; 4th nearly 

 equal to it ; the three first considerably and equally gradated ; 1st, 3^ to 4 

 inches less the longest ; the four first strongly emarginated on the inner web, 

 and 2nd to 5th inclusive, on the outer web also, remotely from the tips ; 

 primaries two inches and more longer than the tertiaries : the last, as well as 

 the scapulars, long and firm. Pecten complete on the 1st quill — clearly 

 traceable on 2nd, 3rd and 4th, below the emargination. Tail medial bowed, 

 square ; the extreme laterals subgradate. Legs immensely stout, short, 

 and plumed nearly to the talons : exterior fore toe antagonising with the 

 others, but not reversile : outer four and central, subequal in length, but 

 the former much the stouter : terminal third of all the toes, denuded of 

 plumes and furnished with three or four heavy scales to each toe : remain- 

 der of the toes, hirsutely plumose. Talons, acute and large : ini\e'- foiv; 



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