NINOX FO RBESL Sclater.
Forbes’s Hawk-Owl.

Ninox forbest, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 52, pl. xi.

 

Tue present species, which has been named in honour of Mr. H. O. Forbes, who discovered it in the
Tenimber Islands, belongs to a little group of Hawk-Owls which have the head uniform. JW. squamipila of
Ceram has many points of resemblance to the subject of our present article, but is altogether of a darker
rufous colour, has the toes scantily feathered, the upper tail-coverts barred with white, and not more than
seven broad blackish bars on the tail-feathers. Below, both species are similar, but WV. forbesi does not have
the under wing-coverts barred as in JV. squamipila.

The nearest ally of V. forbes? is undoubtedly Minow hantu of Wallace from Bourou; but this bird, though
agreeing in the paler and more cinnamon-rufous colours of the plumage, is distinguished by its scantily
feathered toes, which have only a few hair-like bristles. Both species have the under wing-coverts uniform
like the breast 5 but WV. Aantw is a much darker bird, with broader bars on the tail-feathers and no white on
the wing-coverts ; the under surface also is more uniform cinnamon-rufous, and does not show the white bars
which distinguish WV. fordes?.

Mr. Forbes informs us that he only met with this species on one occasion in Timor Laut, and this was
during an excursion to the mainland on the 9th of August, 1882. While conducting a palaver with the
natives to obtain permission to shoot near the village of Loetoe, his native hunters managed to procure a pair
of this Owl while they were awaiting the result of Mr. Forbes’s negotiations with the villagers. The birds
were sitting in a thick bushy tree at no great height from the ground.

The following is a description of the typical specimen figured by Dr. Sclater :—

Adult male (type of species). General colour above reddish brown, rather more rufous on the upper
tail-coverts ; scapulars barred with white or yellowish buff, with narrow cross bars of dusky brown; wing-
coverts like the back, the greater series barred with dusky brown and fulvous or white ; bastard wing like
the other coverts ; primary-coverts nearly uniform dark brown, with slightly indicated reddish-brown cross
bars; quills reddish brown barred with blackish, the interspaces being paler and either fulvous or whitish,
the inner secondaries less barred; tail-feathers light rufous-brown, with eleven bars of dusky blackish on the
centre ones, sixteen on the outer feathers, which show whitish interspaces for more than half of the length
of the outer web; head and hind neck more dingy rufous-brown than the back, with the colour of which it
is in slight contrast; base of forehead aud lores white, extending above the fore part of the eye and having
black shaft-lines ; feathers below the eye and ear-coverts dingy reddish brown, like the head; base of cheeks
and base of chin white; throat and breast tawny rufous, the latter slightly mottled with paler cross bars
of fulvous or narrower ones of dusky ; abdomen and flanks barred broadly with white and more narrowly
with dusky brown, the latter with a conterminous line of tawny buff; thighs and under tail-coverts tawny
rufous, the latter barred with dusky and with broader bands of yellowish white; under wing-coverts and
axillaries tawny rufous, the edge of the wing white, the greater series of coverts and the quills below paler
and more yellowish buff, more reddish brown towards the end of the quills, which are barred across with
blackish brown ; ‘ bill pale corneous ; feet pale yellow, covered with bristly hairs, soles of feet nearly orange ;
iris rich golden” (ZZ. O. Forbes). ‘Total length 11-5 inches, culmen 1:05, wing 7°4, tail 4:5, tarsus 1-1.

The female bird, which was brought over by Mr. Forbes on his return from Timor Laut (too late for us
to figure on the Plate, which had unfortunately been printed off before Mr. Forbes’s arrival), ouly differs
from the male in being paler and in having the breast barred with pale cinnamon like the abdomen, but not
so broadly.

The Plate is drawn from the type specimen, which Dr. Sclater was kind enough to lend us, and portrays

the adult male, of about the full size, in two positions.

[R. B. S.J