570 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. Xli. 



the next hoot, flung up the gun and /ire(? at the sound. The result was a 

 shower of leaves and twigs — only ! 



For several nights the owl continued to hoot near the same spot, but 

 though I took infinite trouble to get a shot at him I never succeeded. I also 

 heard this same hoot on another occasion, at a place about two miles off. I 

 called the attention of Mr. Buchanan of -the Forest Department to this call 

 and he at once said he had seen the bird — ^a large round shaped owl over a 

 foot high, I have gone rather fully into my unsuccessful attempts to gat this 

 bird partly to show the trouble and difficulty a collector has in securing a 

 a particularly desired specimen, and partly, as I think, the bird may possibly 

 turn out to be a new species of Syrnium, peculiar to the islands. 



1166. Ketupasp? JAVANENSis? Less, Blanf., Ill, p. 283. 



I am inclined to think the list of Andaman owls is not at all complete. I 

 was repeatedly told of a large owl with horns, frequenting the desolate man- 

 grove swamps bordering many of the salt-water creeks, The bird was seen 

 and shot at by others two or three times during my stay. This would most 

 probably be Ketiipa javauensis. 



1173. Scops giu. Scop. Blanf., Ill, p. 291 ; " Str. Feath.," II, p. 151, 



A dark rufous form of this owl occurs in the Nicobars, (S. nicoharicus , 



Hume.) 



Blanford unites the little Scops minutus of Ceylon with giu, remarking that 

 it is the most distinctly marked of the different races of the bird. The note of 

 Scops giu is, according to Blanford, a "peculiar monotonous monosyllabic hoot" 

 now the ordinary note of Scojis minutus of Ceylon is exactly the same as that 

 of Scops balli of the Andamans — a jerked out ' hoot-coorroo !' with ' r ' 

 very distinctly toned. This is the only note I have heard it utter, but Bligh 

 noted a monosyllabic hoot. It is not easy to identify a small and scarce owl 

 with its note in thick jungle at night at all, and when owls go and hoot in two 

 distinct ways to add to the difficulty they ought to be abolished. 



In the cases of two races of the same bird hooting in a totally different 

 style ( as with Ninox scutulata, and N. affinis, I have often wondered — the 

 question being quite beyond my knowledge of the subject — whether the 

 difference in voice results from any structural difference in the larynx, which 

 would I suppose establish the races as distinct species, 



117G, Scops balli, Hume. Blanf., Ill, p. 29G ; " Str. Feath,," II, p. 151. 



Very couHnon in the Andamans, but from its nocturnal habits and small 

 size is very difficult to procure. Its note resembles the syllables " hoot ! hoot- 

 coorroo ! " jerked out very rapidly, the rolling " r" in the last note being 

 very distinct. This, by the way, is exactly the same note as that of the 

 Ceylonese Scops minutus, which Mr. Blanford unites with Scojjs giu. It has 

 also a low clucking note. The Andamanese Scops owl seems to feed to a 

 considerable extent on caterpillars ; in searching for these it sidles up and 

 down the boughs of small trees in a very parrot-like manner. It is rather 



