THE BROWN HAWK-OWL. • 159 
Genus NINOX, Hodgs. 
540. NINOX SCUTULATA. 
THE BUOWN HAWK-OWL. 
Strix scutulata, Raffl. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 280. Ninox scutellatus (liaJJ^.), 
Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 147 (part.) ; Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 303 ; Hume, S. F. iv. 
p. 373. Ninox scutulata, Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 420 (part.) ; Sharpe, Cat. 
Birds B. Mus. ii. p. 156 ; Bl. ^ Wald. B. Burm. p. 67 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 84 ; 
Kelham, Ibis, 1881, p. 371. Ninox hirsutus (Temm.), Hume, S. F. iii. p. 40. 
Ninox burmanica, Hume, S. F. iv. p. 285 ; Hime 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 40 ; 
Hume, S. F. viii. p. 84; Bingham, 8. F. ix. p. 148; Hu?ne, S. F. ix. p. 245. 
Ninox innominata, Hmne, S. F. iv. p. 286, v. p. 16. Ninox lugubris 
(Tick.), Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 577 ; Oates, 8. F. x. p. 183. 
Description. — Male and female. Forehead^ lores and chin whitish, with 
black shafts ; the whole upper plumage,, wing-coverts and tertiaries dark 
chocolate-brown; the scapulars with large concealed white spots; pri- 
maries and secondaries dark brown^ barred with white on the inner webs ; 
some of the primaries edged with rufous ; tail ashy brown, tipped paler 
and with five dark-brown bars across it ; throat rufous streaked with 
brown; breast rufous-chocolate, each feather edged on the sides only with 
white ; remainder of lower plumage rufous -chocolate barred with white ; 
under tail-coverts nearly pure white; under wing-coverts and axillaries 
deep rufous, barred with paler rufous. 
Iris bright yellow ; eyelid plumbeous, the edges yellowish brown ; cere 
dull green; bill bluish black; the culmen and tip of lower mandible 
yellowish green; feet pale yellow; claws dark horn. 
Length 12*5 inches, tail 5*3, wing 8*5, tarsus 1*1, bill from gape 1. 
The female is of about the same size as the male. 
The above description is taken from a Tenasserim bird, the race named 
N. burmanica by Mr. Hume. Birds from Pegu differ in being a lighter 
colour above and in having the quills more barred with white. 
I am of opinion, however, that the birds are not divisible into two 
species, nor are they to be separated from the birds which inhabit China, 
the Malay peninsula and the Indo-Burmese countries ; and I accordingly 
follow Mr. Sharpe in uniting them all under Baffles^s name. N. liigubrisy 
which, according to Mr. Sharpe, inhabits solely the Indian peninsula, is 
probably a recognizable species when typical specimens are examined ; but 
there appear to be numerous intermediate examples which cannot be 
assigned with certainty either to one race or the other, and the advisa- 
bility of maintaining two species seems open to doubt. The works above 
referred to contain every thing of importance that Mr. Sharpe and 
Mr. Hume have written on this difficult subject, and the reader who 
