22 ASIONIDE. 
authority for saying that the type of the latter is not separable from the Guatemala 
bird 8. guatemale. There remains S. cassint, which Mr. Ridgway considers a very 
distinct species, the only specimens of which he has seen came from the State of Vera 
Cruz. One of the types (no. 33556) he has kindly sent us for examination, and in our 
opinion it does not differ more widely from some specimens of S. guatemale than they 
do from one another. But as our series of skins from Vera Cruz is limited to a 
specimen from Huatusco, and one in hepatic plumage from Jalapa, we do not feel in a 
position to form a decision on the subject. Whether the acquisition of a good series 
of specimens will show that two species of this form of Scops are found in Vera Cruz, 
we venture to think very doubtful. In the meantime we append Mr. Ridgway’s 
original description of his Scops brasilianus, e. cassint *. 
The range of S. guatemale extends over the hotter parts of Southern Mexico, being 
found, as already stated, in Vera Cruz; it also occurs on the eastern side of the [Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec, in Yucatan, all over Eastern Guatemala, and thence southwards, 
probably uninterruptedly, through the fcrest-region to Costa Rica, Panama, and Kastern 
Ecuador. In Guiana an allied form occurs which we described recently as Scops 
roraime, and this is found in company with the true S. drasilianus, the two keeping 
quite distinct. 
7. Scops brasilianus. 
Stria brasiliana, Gm. Syst. Nat. 1. p. 289°. 
Scops brasilianus, Scl. & Salv. P. Z.S. 1868, p. 57°; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. ii. p. 108°; 
Ridgw. Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. i. p. 90%. 
Supra brunneus, fusco vermiculatus et cervino maculatis, plumis omnibus medialiter nigris: subtus albus, 
plumis omnibus medialiter cervinis, rhachidibus distincte nigris et fasciis angustis nigris irregularibus 
distincte notatis ; faciei lateribus distincte nigro marginatis. Long tota circa 10-0, ale 6°7, caude 3°5, 
tarsi 1:25. (Descr. maris ex Roraima, Brit. Guiana. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Costa Rica, San José (Zeledon).—South America generally, from Colombia to 
South Brazil and Paraguay ?. 
Our authority for the occurrence of this South-American Scops Owl in our fauna is 
Mr. Ridgway, who states that he has in the United States National Museum a good 
series of specimens both from Costa Rica and South America, and that he is unable 
* « Habitat.—Eastern Mexico (Mirador ; Jalapa). 
“ Diagnosis.— Wing, 5°80-6-10 ; tail, 3:20-3:50 ; culmen, -45--50 ; tarsus, 1:20; middle toe, *80. 
“ Grey phase: adult.—Above greyish-brown, finely mottled with lighter and darker shades, the general dusky 
brownish line interrupted by two conspicuous lighter bands, one across the nape, and another across the 
occiput, where the pale brownish-buff spots are very large and the darker markings correspondingly reduced 
in size. Beneath whitish, the feathers with ragged mesial streaks of blackish and transverse 
of the same. 
“ Rufous phase: adult.—Above cinnamon-rufous, with blackish shaft-streaks. Beneath white, with blackish 
mesial streaks and irregular transverse base of rufous and blackish.” (Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. i. p. 102.) 
Mr. Ridgway goes on to compare his specimens with S. brasilianus and S. atricapillus. | 
vermiculations 
