Basilan (Steere Exp.); Luzon (Heriot, Steere Exp.); Masbate (Bourns & Worcester); Mindanao (Steere Exp.); Negros (Keay); Sulu (Bourns & Worcester). Himalayas, Indian Peninsula, Burmese countries.
“Adult female.—Above ashy brown, the head very much grayer, the sides of the face and neck being decidedly light gray; forehead, lores, fore part of cheeks and chin very conspicuously white, the loral plumes with hair-like black shaft-lines; feathers round the eye grayish; scapulars marked externally with large bars of white, not very distinct, and often half concealed; upper wing-coverts ashy brown like the back, the outer median-coverts and the primary-coverts deeper and more inclining to sepia-brown; quills dark brown, a little deeper than the back, barred across with light ashy or grayish brown, inclining to whitish on the outer web of some of the primaries and inner secondaries, most of which are narrowly tipped with white; tail very pale grayish brown, inclining to white at the base, and also tipped with white, crossed with six blackish brown bands; under surface of body white, the throat yellowish buff, streaked longitudinally with grayish brown, the chest broadly streaked with rufescent brown, the abdomen spotted, and each feather subterminally barred with the same; under tail-coverts pure white, the basal ones with a few brownish bands; leg-feathers rufous-brown, very slightly mottled with whitish cross-markings; under wing-coverts white, barred across with dark brown, the outermost almost entirely brown, the edge of the wing white; the greater series dusky grayish brown, barred with buffy white, thus resembling the inner lining of the wing, which is grayish brown, barred with buffy white on the inner web, these bars inclining to fulvous near the base. Cere and bill green, the tip of the latter dusky; feet grayish or reddish yellow; iris bright golden yellow. Length, 343; wing, 232; tail, 145; tarsus, 34.
“Adult male.—Smaller than the female, and having only five blackish bands on the tail. Length, 292; wing, 216; tail, 142; tarsus, 29.” (Sharpe.)
“The two specimens collected measure 294 in length; culmen, 15; wing, 222; tail, 123; middle toe with claw, 30; tarsus, 28. Iris yellow; legs and feet yellow; bill black along gape, elsewhere dirty greenish. Food insects.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
222. NINOX SCUTULATA (Raffles).
RAFFLES’S HAWK OWL.
- Strix scutulata Raffles, Trans. Linn. Soc. (1822), 13, pt. 2, 280.
- Ninox scutulata Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1875), 2, 156 (part); Hand-List (1899), 1, 290; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1902), 2, 329; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 47.
Palawan (Platen). Southern India, Malay Peninsula, Greater Sunda Islands, Ceylon, Tenasserim.
“Adult (type of Athene malaccensis[27]).—Above deep chocolate-brown, the head slightly darker, the scapulars with concealed white bars; wing-coverts exactly like the back and equally uniform, the primary-coverts blackish, quills dark brown, slightly washed externally with ocherous, the primaries inclining to rufous-ocherous toward their tips, all the wing-feathers nearly uniform, with no lighter cross-bands, the inner secondaries barred with white, but these bars entirely concealed; upper tail-coverts uniform chocolate-brown like the back; tail-feathers ashy brown, rather paler at tips, and crossed with five blackish bands (one basal and concealed); sides of face chocolate-brown, as also the sides of the neck, the latter slightly washed with rufous; forehead and lores whitish, the latter obscured by blackish shaft-lines; chin whitish, slightly streaked with brown; rest of under surface rufous-chocolate, the throat washed with buff, the breast varied with white, generally as if streaked, the margins to the feathers being whitish; on the abdomen the white predominating and cutting across the feather, so as to form an oval spot of brown at the tips of the abdominal plumes, leg-feathers brown; under tail-coverts whitish; under wing-coverts rufous-chocolate, the inner feathers washed and barred with ochraceous-buff, the edge of the wing whitish; the greater series sepia-brown, nearly uniform, excepting for a few ochraceous bars near the base, thus resembling the inner lining of the wing, which is sepia-brown, with a few ochraceous bars near the base of the quills. Length, 317; wing, 213; tail, 122; tarsus, 28.” (Sharpe.)