STRIGES, 189 



be seen in the woodcut on page 58 of the British Museum Catalogue 

 of Striges. 



I only know of the existence of five examples of Cassin's Scops 

 Owl. The type in the Philadelphia Museum was caught on board- 

 ship a few miles west of the Loo-Choo Islands ; a second example in 

 the British Museum (erroneously described in the Catalogue, vol. ii. 

 p. 56, as Scops japonicus) was obtained by Captain St. John at 

 Nagasaki ; a third, in the Educational Museum of Tokio, was procured 

 on Okinawa-Shima, one of the Loo-Choo Islands, and is recorded 

 under the name of Megascops elegans (Stejneger, Proc. United States 

 Nat. Mus. 1886, p. 639); and the Pryer collection contains the 

 fourth example, also from the central group of the Loo-Choo Islands 

 (Seebohm, Ibis, 1888, p. 232). The fifth example is that of a very 

 young bird in the Smithsonian Institution, and was collected by 

 Mr. Tasaki on one of the northerly islands of the Loo-Choo group 

 (Stejneger, Proc. United States Nat. Mus. 1887, p. 401). 



170. SCOPS SCOPS. 



(SCOPS OWL.) 



Strix scops, Liuneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 132 (17GG). 



Japanese examples of the Scops Owl appear all to belong to the 

 small dark race of this species, which may perhaps only be entitled 

 to be regarded as subspecifically distinct, under the name of Scops 

 scops japonicus. It is slightly smaller than the typical form (wing 

 from carpal joint 5| to oj inches), and decidedly darker and browner. 

 The ear-tufts are well developed; the tarsus is feathered, but the 

 feet are bare. 



Figures : Dresser, Birds of Europe, v. pi. 314 (typical form) ; 

 Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, pi. 9 (eastern form). 



The Scops Owl is said to be rather common in Japan (Blakiston 

 and Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 247), but it is rare in collections. When 

 the second volume of the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum 

 was published there were no Japanese examples in the National 

 Collection, and only two have since been added — one from the 

 Tweeddale collection (brown phase) from Yokohama, and a second 

 from the Swinhoe collection (rufous phase) from Hakodadi (Swinhoe, 

 Ibis, 1875, p. 448, no. 71). There are only two examples in the 



