24 Description of a New Species of Falconine Owl. [Jan. 



edly, but the most accipitrine of owls ; and, much as the peculiar 

 attributes of Noctua had prepared me to expect, in or near this group 

 of the Strigidse, the type and symbol of the Accipitrinoe, I did not hope 

 that the forests of Nepal would so soon yield that type to my own 

 hands.* 



Species new, Nipalensis nobis. 



Form. — Bill to head as 1 to Ii inch, short, arched from the base, 

 considerably compressed and feeble rather before the large cere ; the 

 tomiae entire and very little trenchant ; tip of lower mandible very 

 obliquely and slightly truncated. Nares small, round, anteal, furnish- 

 ed with a central pillar, and partially free and apert; the cere behind 

 them swollen semitubularly, and soft. Head very small and accipi- 

 tririe, void of egrets, almost so of facial disc, and only strigine in the 

 size and position of the eyes. Opening of the ears but ^ of an inch 

 long, nearly round, quite simple, and protected by a cross row of 

 setaceous plumes. Tail equal to the body in length, composed of 12 

 firm and unbowed feathers, of nearly equal length, but tend- 

 ing to a rounded form at the end. Wings Ik inch less the tail; 

 3d quill decidedly longest; 1st but two inches, and 2d, only half an 

 inch less the 3d; 1st to 4th inclusive sharply emarginated on the inner 

 web, remotely from the tips ; and 2d to 5th on the outer ; all firm and 

 nearly or quite void of strigine characteristics : tertiaries nearly two 

 inches less the primaries : scapulars as much shorter again. Tarsi 

 submedial, slender, moderately plumed. Toes gather long, cleft, void 

 of plumes, covered by rigid hairs which become spinous laterally near 

 the soles ; lateral fores, equal ; central, not elongated ; hind, small ; 

 all cleft ; soles of the fores, depressed, flat and papillose ; of the hind, 

 full. Talons long, slender, very acute, subequal; inner and central 

 equal ; outer fore, less ; hind, least : inner process of the central one 

 intire; fores, flat beneath — the hind, rounded. Plumage, generally, 

 neither lax nor soft. 



Colour and size. — Above, a medial earthy brown ; beneath, sordid 

 rusty from chin to breast, and white from breast downwards. Disc, 

 towards the bill, hoary ; towards the head, brown. Superior surface of 

 the bird unmarked save on the tail, which has six, broad, regular bars 

 equal to their paler intervals, and five of them apert : ground colour of 

 the inferior surface, largely picked out with longitudinal central drops 

 of brown, spreading as you descend the body, and changing into hearts 

 on the flanks ; tibiee and tarsi sordid rufous, with vague cross bars of 



* I regret I have no species of Surnia wherewith to compare our bird. Surnia may 

 possibly dispute with it the honour of typifying the nobler races of the Falconidae : but the 

 thickly plumed toes and wedged tail of Surnia, sufficiently indicate that our bird is not of 

 that genus. 



