Strix lugubris Tickell, Jour. As. Soc. Bengal (1831), 2, 573.
Ninox lugubris Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1875), 2, 154;
Hand-List (1899), 1, 290; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 329;
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 47.
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.)