on Dr. Jcrdon's 'Birds of India.' 255 



in his remarks on the fauna of Barrackpore, near Calcutta 

 (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 366)*. 



74. Ephialtes bakkaMjENa (Pennant) ; Otus scops japonicus, 

 Schlegel (Faun. Japon. Aves, tab. ix.) ; Sco^js zorca asiatica. 

 Idem, Mus. P.-B. Oti, p. 30. 



Of this small Indian Scops-Owl the Calcutta Museum can 

 show a very complete gradation, from the grey Scops pennatus to 

 the bright chestnut or ferruginous S. sunia of Hodgson ; or, if 

 one semi-link in the chain be wanting, it is supplied by an 

 Indian specimen referred to the European Scops-Owl by Mr. F. 

 Moore. The specific identity of S. pemiatus and S. sunia is cer- 

 tain, and they cannot even be admitted as different races ; yet 

 Mr. G. R. Gray (in his B. M. Cat. of Birds of Nepal, 2nd edit., 

 1863) adopts S. sunia for the rufous bird, while the grey bird (with 

 S. malayensis, A. Hay, and S. spilocephalus, nobis, as synonyms) 

 he refers to the Eui'opean E. scops. Mr. F. Moore makes the 

 same confusion. I am decidedly of opinion, as I have before 

 stated (Ibis, 1863, p. 27), that the proper name for the 

 Indian bird (whether grey or rufous) is E. bakkamcena (Pennant). 

 It is the only Scops-Owl which I know of as an inhabitant 

 of Lower Bengal ; and I have occasionally obtained specimens 

 in a curious way : they would lodge by day within the moveable 

 "leaves" of di jilmil (or "jalousie^'), in which singular retreat 

 I have captured them. I have also known Mus flnvescens to 

 resort by day (with the vain notion of concealing itself) to the 

 same very insufficient hiding-place. Of course the jihnils 

 being a little open, to permit of their ensconcing themselves, the 

 animals intercept the light from without, and are so discovered. 

 The Indian (or more probably Chinese) E. gymnopodus, Gray, 

 is surely no other than E. hakkamatna [vide Ibis, 1863, p. 27) ; 

 but the Malacca race [S. malayensis, A. Hay) seems to be some- 

 what different, and I have not found it to vary in shade of 

 hue ; while in India the rufous specimens are certainly more 

 common than the grey ; I even think, considerably so. 



* [Mr. J. H. Giu-ney agrees with Mr. Blytli in considering Kettipa 

 Jlavipes of North-eastern India distinct from K. javanensis of the Malay 

 Archipelago, as, though the colouring of the two is similar, the former 

 is fully a third larger than the latter. — Ed.] 



