Part 103

"We heard a large owl, in all probability of this species, hooting at night in the Calamianes Islands; a single specimen was secured in Palawan; it measured, 432 in length; wing, 202; tail, 186; culmen, 26; tarsus, 61; middle toe with claw, 48." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)

Family ALUCONIDÆ.

Middle toe pectinate; ruff around eyes and across throat fully developed; primaries much longer than secondaries; proximal half of tarsus fully feathered, distal half covered with much shorter, more hair-like plumes; toes sparsely covered with hairs; plumage very soft and fluffy.

Genus ALUCO Fleming, 1822.

Characters same as those given for the Family.

232. ALUCO LONGIMEMBRIS (Jerdon).

GRASS OWL.

Strix longimembris Jerdon, Madras Jour. (1839), 10, 86. Strix candida (not of Latham, 1801) Tickell, Jour. As. Soc. Bengal (1833), 2, 572; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1875), 2, 308; Hand-List (1899), 1, 302; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 342; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 48. Aluco longimembris McGregor, Phil. Jour. Sci. (1908), 3, sec. A, 283.

Cua-gong ta-lá-hib, Manila.

Batan (McGregor, Edmonds); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Cebu (Everett); Luzon (Heriot, Steere Exp., Whitehead, Worcester, McGregor); Mindanao (Mearns); Siquijor (Steere Exp.). Indian Peninsula, Burmese provinces, northern Australia, Fiji, Formosa, Celebes.

Adult male (Benguet, Luzon, May 10, 1903).--Feathers of upper parts dark brown, the bases and edges, more or less, yellowish buff, this color forming a collar on hind neck; many of the feathers of back and wing-coverts each with a small white spot near the tip; a blackish spot in front of each eye; face white slightly tinged with buff; stiff ruff-feathers white, the outer ones with black shafts and blackish brown tips; sides of neck light tawny-buff with large brown spots; under parts white with a few small black spots on breast and flanks; breast faintly washed with buff; wing-lining and axillars white with larger black spots; primaries and secondaries, above light buff, with dark brown bars and whitish tips, below white, the tips of primaries dark brown; primary-coverts orange-buff basally; rectrices white with four blackish brown bars, the bars obsolete on outermost pair. Bill white, legs dirty brown; nails brown. Length, 395; wing, 355; tail, 135; bill from anterior border of nostril, 19; tarsus, 85; middle toe with claw, 55.

Female (Batan Island, June, 1907).--Similar to the male from Benguet but darker; under parts heavily washed with ocherous-buff; face washed with vinaceous-brown; the blackish spots of under parts more numerous. Length, 406; wing, 368; tail, 130.

The difference in color between the male and female, as described above, is not due to either age or sex and occurs in many, if not in all, of the members of this genus.

Nestling (Laguna Province, Luzon, February 15, 1906).--Wings and tail, as far as developed, like those of the adult; body and legs thickly covered with yellowish buff down.

Order PSITTACIFORMES.

COCKATOOS AND PARROTS.

Bill short, extremely strong; upper mandible movable, cered and strongly hooked as in the birds of prey; toes four, the outer toe permanently reversed; tarsus short and stout, covered with small scales. Eggs pure white, seldom with any gloss; oval, or rarely spheroidal; deposited in hollow trees.

Families.

a1. Hook of bill underneath nearly smooth or with very superficial longitudinal ridges, but with no distinct file-like surface. ... Loriidæ (p. 272) a2. Hook of bill underneath with a series of transverse ridges more or less bent along the median line and producing a file-like surface.

b1. Head crested; plumage nearly all white. ... Cacatuidæ (p. 273) b2. Head without crest; plumage nearly all green, or green and blue, never white. ... Psittacidæ (p. 275)

Family LORIIDÆ.

"Bill much compressed, generally longer than deep, not notched, and smooth; culmen rounded and narrow; lower mandible rather long, with the gonys narrow, straight, and obliquely slanting upward, not flattened in front and with no keel-like ridge; upper mandible with no file-like surface on the under surface of the hook; tongue brushy; cere broader over the culmen and gradually becoming narrower along the sides of the bill; * * * wing acute, with the three first quills generally the longest." (Salvadori.) In the single Philippine species the forehead is "dark rosy red."

Genus TRICHOGLOSSUS Vigors and Horsfield, 1826.

Characters same as those given for the Family.

233. TRICHOGLOSSUS JOHNSTONIÆ Hartert.

MRS. JOHNSTONE'S LORIKEET.

Trichoglossus johnstoniæ Hartert, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1903), 14, 10; Novit. Zool. (1906), 13, 755; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 48; Grant, Ibis (1906), 495; Goodfellow, Avicult. Mag. (1906), 4, 83 (plate).

Mindanao (Goodfellow, Waterstradt).