Ninox spilonotus Bourns and Worcester, Minnesota
Acad. Nat. Sci. Occ. Papers (1894), 1, 8.
Ninox spilonota Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 290; McGregor and
Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 47.
Cebu (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Mindoro (Platen, Everett,
Bourns & Worcester); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor);
Tablas (Bourns & Worcester).
"Sexes alike.--General color of upper surface fulvous-brown;
feathers of head, nape, interscapulars, and wing-coverts spotted
with light rufous-brown giving the parts in question a decidedly
speckled appearance; rump fulvous-brown, upper tail-coverts faintly
spotted with pale rufous-brown; tail nearly black with nine narrow
transverse bands of light rufous-brown; quills like tail but spotted,
instead of barred, with light rufous-brown; scapulars like back,
some of them with large nearly white spots on outer webs; a few of
greater series of wing-coverts also spotted with white on outer webs;
chin and throat whitish, almost pure white in one specimen, in others
light rufous-brown, the feathers always with black shaft-stripes;
auriculars fulvous-brown somewhat mixed with light rufous-brown;
sides of neck like head; breast, abdomen, flanks, thighs, under
wing-coverts, and axillars rufous-brown, the depth of the color
subject to great individual variation, many feathers of breast and
abdomen with fulvous-brown spots and all with blackish bases; under
surface of wing fulvous-brown. Inner webs of feathers, especially
of secondaries, spotted and barred with light rufous-brown; a spot
of white on bend of wing; tarsus feathered for rather more than half
its length. Iris yellow; legs and feet pale yellow; bill black at tip,
gray at base. Two females measure, 241 in length; culmen, 13; tarsus,
31; wing, 181; tail, 102.
"A single specimen of this species was secured in Cebu by Mr. Worcester
in 1888. Its curious mottled back and under surface were suggestive
of immaturity, and Dr. Steere thought it to be the young of some
undescribed species. We have altogether too much material now to make
such a theory tenable." (Bourns and Worcester.)
A rusty brown male was taken in Sibuyan. Iris yellow; bill and legs
pale dirty greenish; cere a little darker; nails gray, blackish
at tips. Length, 285; wing, 210; tail, 114; culmen from base, 23;
tarsus, 32.
A male from Cebu is in the light phase. Chin, throat, and forehead
mostly white; rictal bristles with white bases; scapulars spotted with
white; abdomen and flanks very largely white and with no fulvous nor
rusty brown wash.