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61. :- Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 118; Hume's Scrap Book, p. 345.

The Grass Owl.
 

Length, 14; wing, 14; tail, 4.5 ; tarsus, 3.5.

Bill horny; irides very dark brown; legs livid, above tawny yellow; the feathers brown, yellowish at base and with a terminal white spot; the quills fulvous-yellow, with distinct brown bars; tail pale yellow, with four dark brown bars, the terminal one mottled at the ending ; disc fulvous-white, with a dark brown spot at the inner angle of the eye; ruff dark fulvous ; beneath yellowish-white, with small brown specks; tarsus and toes with a few scattered bristles, scarcely plumed at the knee ; the wings reach three inches beyond the tail; the claws are blunter and less curved than in the last.

Dr. Jerdon procured the Grass Owl in Central India, as did also Colonel Tickell. Neither Colonel Swinhoe or myself met with it there.

 

The Grass-Owl.

Strix Candida, Tickell, J. A. S. B. ii, p. 572 (1833); Jerdon, IB. Ind. Orn. pl. 30; id. B. I. i, p. 118; Godw.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xxxix, pt. 2, p. 93; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. ii. p. 308; Blyth & Wold. Birds Burm. p. 68; Fairbank, S. F. iv, p. 253 ; Hume & Dav. S. F. vi, p. 27; Ball & Hume, S. F. vii, p. 200; Hume, Cat. no. 61; Reid, S. F. x, p. 14; Davison, ibid. p. 341; Terry, ibid. p. 469; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 168; id. in Hume's N. & E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 95 ; Hume, S. F. xi, p. 18. Strix longimembris, Jerdon, Madr. Jour. L. S. x, p. 86 (1839). Glaux javanica, Blyth, Cat. p. 42 (1849); nec Strix javanica, Gmel. Glaux Candida, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xix, p. 513; Hume, N. & E. p. 60. Scelostrix Candida, Kaup, Tr. Z. S. iv, p. 248; Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 251; 1870, p. 160; Hume, Rough Notes, p. 345; A. Anderson, S. F. iii, p. 388.

Coloration. Disk either white or suffused with pale pinkish ferruginous, a blackish-brown spot in front of each eye; ruff dark brown above, white or buff at the sides of the head and below, some of the feathers often tipped with brown; upper plumage dark brown, each feather with a minute white spot; basal portion of feathers orange-buff,—this colour is conspicuous in places, especially on the neck ; smallest wing-coverts orange-buff, with small brown spots; quills buff, tipped with brown, mottled above the tip and with some imperfect dark bars farther up, inner webs mostly white; tail-feathers white, the middle pair generally and the outer webs of the others often buff above, all, except sometimes the outermost, with brown cross-bars; lower parts from chin white or buff, with several scattered brown spots that are seldom or never entirely wanting.

The buff lower parts and the pink disk may be signs of youth (they are not so in S. flammea); they are certainly not sexual.

Bill and cere pinky white; irides deep brown; legs and feet blackish brown; claws horny, tinged bluish (Davison).

Length about 14; tail 5; wing 13; tarsus 3.2-3.8; bill from gape 1.6.

Distribution. The grassy plains near the base of the Himalayas as far west as Dehra Dun, also parts of Bengal, the Eastern Central Provinces (Balaghat, Raipur), and Southern India (Nellore, Carnatic, Nilgiris), but not Ceylon. Fairbank thought he saw this Owl in the Bombay Deccan, but I agree with Butler that probably some other species may have been taken for it. To the eastward it has been found in Assam, the Khasi hills, Manipur, and at Toungngoo in Burma, and as far as Formosa in one direction, and Queensland in another, but it appears to be rare as a rule and very locally distributed.

Habits, &c. This species has generally been found in long grass, but Davison says that on the Nilgiris he has flushed it from grass scarcely a foot high. Very little is known of its habits. The nest, a very slight one, if any, is made on the ground; the eggs, 4 or 5 in number, are white, and measure about 1.63 by 1.27. They have been taken from October to December.

 

The Grass-Owl.

Strix longimembris Jerdon, Madr. Journ. Lit. Sci, x, p. 86 (1839) (Madras). Strix Candida. Blanf. & Oates, iii, p. 266.

Vernacular names. Sun-Oloo-sorai (Assam).

Description. Disk pure white to pale pinkish-ferruginous; ruff pure white in a few specimens, dark brown above in most and nearly always tipped above and below with ferruginous brown; a dark brown spot above the eye ; upper plumage dark rich brown, each feather with a spot of white near the tip, usually very small, sometimes rather larger; the bases of the feathers and most of the outer edges are orange-buff and show through in a varying degree, most conspicuously so on the neck; innermost lesser wing-coverts orange-buff speckled with brown ; median and greater coverts brown, the inner coverts more or less mottled with orange-buff, tipped with brown, more or less mottled with brown on the outer edges of the terminal halves, white on the edges of the inner webs and barred with dark brown; tail white or buffy-white, mottled at the tip and barred with dark brown, the markings obsolete or absent on the outermost pair; lower surface white, generally suffused with buff on the breast and flanks and lightly spotted on these parts with dull brown.

Colours of soft parts. Iris hazel to deep brown; bill fleshy-white to fleshy-horny; the cere more decidedly pink: legs and feet dark fleshy-brown to almost blackish-brown; claws horny-brown.

Measurements. Wing 305 to 348 mm.; tail 114 to 125 mm. ; tarsus 86 to 94 mm.; culmen about 36 mm. Nestling in down is fulvous-rufous.

Distribution. The sub-Himalayas from Dehra Dun to Eastern Assam; Bengal, East of the Bay, and Purnea, Maldah, etc ; Balaghat and Raipur in the Central Provinces; Southern India in Nellore, Carnatic, Nilgiris and adjoining Hills.

Nidification. This Owl breeds during the Cold Weather in India from October to March but in the hills of North Cachar I found eggs in July. The eggs are always laid on the ground and nearly always on level ground in fairly long grass. Occasionally the nest is made in quite short grass and one nest I found in grass only a few inches high, but this was in a hollow in the side of a very steep bank of a stream. The eggs number four to six and are laid on a good pad or nest of soft shreds of grass, sometimes a couple of inches thick. Forty eggs average 39.9 x 32.7 mm.: maxima 42.7 X 33.6 and 42.1 x 34.0 mm.; minima 36.0 x 30.0 mm.

Habits. The Grass-Owl inhabits the immense plains of long grass found in the lower hills, or Terai, of the Himalayas and the adjoining plains of Bihar, Bengal and Assam. Even where these Owls are common they are but seldom seen unless put up by parties shooting big game but I have often seen them when benighted out Gaur-shooting. Their extraordinary calls are just like those of the Barn-Owl and their flight is the same ghostly glide past of a grey shadow, with a soft flip-flap as they alight on a tree or once more leave it. They eat not only field-mice and similar small mammals but small reptiles, such as frogs and the smaller harmless snakes, and they also eat other birds' eggs and young. I have also seen the remains of locusts, grasshoppers and cicadae in their pellets and such, probably, form a large portion of their food.

The name Candida Tickell, 1833, is preoccupied by Latham, Ind. Orn. Suppl. p. xiv (1787) and cannot therefore be used.

 

Tyto longimembris longimembris Jerdon.

 

Strix longimembris Jerdon, Madr. Jour. Lit. Sci., vol. x, p, 86, 1840: Neilgherries, Madras.

Strix Candida Tickell, J. A. S. B. vol. ii, p. 572, Nov. 1833 : Bengal; not Strix Candida Latham, 1801.