84 



BUBONIDJ.. 



and composed of oehraceous-buff feathers, every one of which is 

 tipped with blackish ; wing-coverts coloured like the hack, the least 

 ones dusky and neai-ly uniform brown, the greater ones vermiou- 

 lated and marked in the centre with blackish, the feathers more or 

 less distinctly barred with fulvous, and inclining to buffy- white near 

 the tips of the outer webs, the spurious quills also distinctly notched 

 on the outer web with buflFy white ; primary coverts blackish brown, 

 very minutely vermiculated with sandy buff, forming three tolerably 

 distinct bars on the outer webs ; quills dark broMii, banded with 

 ashy brown on the inner webs, these lighter bars being replaced on 

 the outer webs by others of sandy buif sHghtly vermiculated with 

 brown, the primaries externally chequered with white bars, the in- 

 terspaces also slightly vermiculated with sandy buff ; the innermost 

 secondaries vermiculated like the back, which they closely resemble ; 

 tad-feathers dark brown, coarsely vermiculated with zigzag lines of 

 sandy buff, and crossed with seven or eight bars of the latter colour" 

 on the outer feathers, only seven being traceable on the centre ones, 

 the outermost externally notched with indistinct white spots ; lores 

 white, slightly barred across with black, the feathers rufescent 

 towards the tips, which are blackish ; a verj- distinct eyebrow of 

 greyish white feathers, narrowly tipped with brown ; the sides of 

 the crown rather gi-eyer than the vertex, and so forming a light 

 band on each side of the head continuous with the ear-coverts, 

 which are whitish on the inner web, slightly barred with brown, 

 and vermiculated near the tip with minute lines of the same, the 

 outer webs blackish, mottled with a few spots of sandy buff, and 

 vermiculated with brown on the outer margin ; behind the upper 



Leg of Scops semitorqnes, to show featheiing on toes. 



part of the eye a patch of rufescent feathers vermiculated with black, 

 and reaching to the base of the ear-tufts ; sides of face dull greyish, 

 crossed with numerous faint bars of brown, washed with rufous 

 brown near the eye, and relieved by some of the shaft-lines being 



