250 Mr. Blyth's Commentary 



60. Steix indica, nobis, n. sp. 



Syn. S. javanica, Jeixlon, B. Ind. i, p. 117; S. flammea, Gould, 

 P.Z. S. 1859, p. 151 (ex Siam) ? 



Prof. Schlegel (Mus. P.-B. Striges, p. 4) unites S. javanica with 

 S. flammea, and remarks of " individus des Indes orientales" that 

 "II parait que leur taille est tant soit peu moins forte que dans ceux 

 de PEurope et que le has de leur tarses est un peu moins emplume.^^ 

 The late Hugh Strickland identified Horsfield^s type Javan 

 specimen with >S. Candida; and the species which is figui-ed by Gray 

 and Mitchell (Gen. Birds, pi. 15) is considerably more akin to 

 S. Candida than it is to S. flammea, and again still less so to 

 S. indica (which I now distinguish) of the Indian and Indo- 

 Chinese subregions. The latter, as Dr. Jerdon remarks, as com- 

 pared with S. flammea, " differs by being larger, with more ro- 

 bust feet and toes, and in being more spotted beneath." The 

 last character, however, is by no means of constant occurrence. 

 At a time when I erroneously supposed the Indian Screech-Owl 

 to be identical with the European, I at once discriminated a 

 specimen of the latter (from an unknown locality — Egypt, as I 

 afterwards learned) and placed it as a separate species (no. 172) 

 of my Catalogue of the Birds in the Asiatic Society^s Museum, 

 Calcutta (1849). Subsequently I named it S.pusilla (J.A.S.B. 

 xviii. p. 801), and was not a little surprised when it proved to 

 be the real S. flammea. The distinction I have ever since found 

 to be constant ; and the difference of the two races is so very 

 conspicuously apparent, upon comparison of specimens, that I 

 cannot understand Prof Schlegel identifying a Nipalese example 

 (presented by Mr. Hodgson) with his Javan race. They 

 belong even to different sections of Strigince, with much dif- 

 ference of habit — S. indica ranking with *S'. flammea in Strix 

 proper, and S. javanica in Scelostrix of Kaup, together with 

 S. Candida and S. capensis. Prof. Kaup considers the Aus- 

 tralian S. delicatula, Gould (B. Austr. i. pi. 31), to be identical 

 with S. javanica [vera) ; remarking, " I cannot find any difference 

 between the examples of this species from Australia and those from 

 Java[?J, and I feel quite sure that S. delicatula and S. javanica 

 belong to one and the same species " (Trans. Zool. Soc. iv. 

 p. 247). Mr. Cassin, in his ' Catalogue of Strigida,' keeps S. de- 



