on Dr. Jerdon's 'Birds of India.' 251 



licatula apart from S.javanica (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil. 1849); 

 but then all his specimens were Indian, and of course S. indica : 

 yet he cites the beautiful and correct figui'e of S. javanica, pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Gray and Mitchell, as representing his supposed 

 S. javanica. Finally Mr. Gould, in his ' Handbook to the Birds 

 of Australia/ retains S. delicatula, but refers to S.javanica "of 

 India ^' (i. e. S. indica), and not to the true S.javanica of the Ma- 

 layan subregion. Numerous specimens of S. delicatula in the 

 British Museum seem to make a very close approach to S. indica, 

 and not to S. javanica, w\\\c\\ latter is a small Scelostrix (as dis- 

 tinguished from Strix), with white bill and claws like the Indian 

 Neophron. S. affinis, nobis (Ibis, 1862, p. 388), from South 

 Africa, proves to be S. poensis, Fraser. Mr. Wallace has a fine 

 true Strix from Macassar which is still more robust than S. 

 indica, and closely approximates S.persunata of Australia (Gould's 

 B. Austr. i. p. 29). 



61. SCELOSTKIX CANDIDA. 



I never obtained this bu'd in Lower Bengal ; but I remember 

 that the late Professor Wallich had a coloured drawing of one 

 that, as I understood from him, had been killed in the Calcutta 

 Botanic Garden; and Mr. F. Moore's supposed *S^. capensis, re- 

 presented in one of Buchanan Hamilton's drawings, refers, as a 

 matter of course, to this species. In the 'Ibis' (1865, p. 30) 

 I mentioned that I found S. Candida among the Philippine 

 specimens in the Derby Museum of Liverpool, two very fine 

 examples (collected by the late Hugh Cuming) ; but since I have 

 come to understand the differences of the kindred species, I feel 

 that I should like to reexamine the Philippine bird, which is 

 likely to prove another distinguishable species, however close to 

 S. Candida, and the more so as the latter would otherwise appear 

 to be one of the peculiar species of the Indian subregion*. 



62. Phodilus badius. 



Prof. Schlegel refers this species to his Ulula as distinguished 



* The species of Scelostrix are dislinguislied by tlieir long- and slender 

 tarsi, which are not feathered on the lower half. They are ground-birds, 

 which conceal themselves in long grass during the day, and affect the open 

 country away ft-om human habitations — habits considerably diverse from 

 those of the birds which constitute the genus S^rix as here limited. 



