27 
of Hongkong, Macao, and Canton . 
9. Ketupa ceylonensis (Gm.)*. Grab Owl. 
This magnificent Homed Owl, so like Bubo maximus, but at 
once distinguishable from that bird by the naked tarsi, is a con¬ 
stant tenant of the dark rocky ravines of Hongkong. The Eu¬ 
ropean cemetery in the Happy Yalley is separated from the race¬ 
course by a broad road, and bounded in the front by a high wall 
with a central gateway. At the rear of this enclosure, which 
abounds in graceful tombs and funereal trees, rises a high hill, 
well-wooded, and cleft by a ravine tangled over by most luxu¬ 
riant vegetation. In this lovely spot are found some of the 
choicest ferns and plants for which Hongkong is justly cele¬ 
brated. Happening to pass one day, after I had stood enjoying 
the glorious view, I rambled up a narrow path, gun in hand. A 
Bulbul flew past me, and then another; and, as they perched 
within gunshot on a bush, I fired at them, when, to my astonish¬ 
ment, from under a gigantic black rock which rested on a 
smaller one, thus forming a natural cave, out flew a great Owl, 
and alighted on a branch close above me, with raised crest and 
ruffled feathers, evidently much bewildered and startled by the 
report of the gun. He was not, however, more astonished than 
myself, and by the time I had recovered myself he had also re¬ 
covered himself, and, seeing me standing near, made off to the 
other side of the hill. I saw him settle on a tree, and thinking that 
an Owl by day was an easy prey, I pursued. But his eyes were 
too good; I could not get near him. I thereupon returned to his 
roost, and found, by the feathers and old casts, that the ledge 
underneath the rock must have been long tenanted. But what 
surprised me most was to find that the casts consisted chiefly of 
morsels of crab-shells and claws, together with a few bones of 
some small murine animals. Two days afterwards I again put the 
Owl out of the same haunt, but somehow managed to miss him. 
* Certainly this species, and not K.javanica, as supposed by Mr. Swinhoe. 
Mr. Swinhoe speaks of the iris of Ketupa ceylonensis as “ orange.” I am 
informed by Mr. J. H. Gurney, that, in a specimen which was in the Zoo¬ 
logical Society’s Gardens some years since, the irides were of a very bright 
clear and pure yellow, without any tint of orange. It would appear there¬ 
fore that the colouring of the irides in this species varies as it does in 
Bubo maximus, the very old individuals of which have much redder irides 
than the young ones.—P. L. S. 
