174 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



deeply sunken road (perhaps a stream bed during the rains) heavily 

 shaded by overarching bamboos. It was being set upon by a pack of 

 village dogs and was easily captured by having a hat placed over it. 



The present form (in the gray phase) has the upperparts brownish 

 gray, beautifully mottled everywhere with black and white and 

 washed in places with rufous ; a conspicuous dark rufous band along 

 the whole length of the forearm; the underparts white with heavy 

 black streaks and wavy black cross bars. In the red phase it has the 

 entire upperparts bright rufous, boldly streaked with black ; the band 

 along the forearm indicated by deeper rufous coloration ; the under- 

 parts much as in the gray phase but with some of the black marks 

 replaced by bright rufous. The irides are yellow. The first primary is 

 equal to the eighth in length ; the second falls between the fifth and 

 sixth. 



This owl resembles stictonotus but differs strikingly in having all 

 its dark markings broader and more distinct, its colors richer and 

 purer. In the gray phase of distans the ground color of the upper- 

 parts is brownish gray rather than grayish brown; the white mark- 

 ings are almost or wholly without buffy suffusion ; there is much less 

 vermiculation below. In the red phase the rufous is far brighter than 

 in any similar specimen of stictonotus that I have seen. Finally, the 

 red band along the forearm seems to be found only in examples of 

 distans. 



The U. S. National Museum has received two more skins of this 

 form, collected by Dr. Joseph F. Rock in southern Annam, August 

 and November 1939. One of them is in the red phase ; the other is 

 gray and agrees well with the birds of Thailand. The four known 

 specimens are discussed by Delacour, Zoologica, vol. 26, No. 17, 1941. 

 pp. 138-139. 



OTUS SCOPS STICTONOTUS (Bowdler Sharpe) 



Chinese Common Scops Owl 



Scops stictonotus Bowdler Sharpe, Catalogue of the birds in the British Museum, 



vol. 2, 1875, pp. 54-56, pi. 3, fig. 2 (China). 

 Otus giu stictonotus, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1928, 



p. 576 (Chiang Mai). 

 Otus sunia modestus [partim], Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 



1931, p. 164 (Chiang Mai [partim]). 



The Chinese race of the common scops owl appears to be a very rare 

 winter visitor to the northern provinces. The only specimens yet 

 known from our area are a male from Chiang Mai, March 16, 1928, 

 and another from Doi Pha Horn Pok, 6,400 feet, February 15, 1938, 

 both of which were taken by de Schauensee's collectors. 



This small horned owl may be generally rufous, grayish brown, or 

 somewhere between the two extremes. The feathers everywhere are 



