172 Mr. J. H. Gurney on some Eafitern Owls. 



I may take this opportunity of mentioning another scarce 

 Owl from Jobie Island, which has lately been acquired by 

 the Norwich Museum, viz. Ninox dimorpha ; this specimen, 

 which has been marked by the collector as a female, 

 measures — wing 8*75, tarsus 1'40, middle toe s.u. I'lO. 



Captain Wardlaw Ramsay possesses a beautiful rufous Owl, 

 a male, from Camorta Island in the Nicobar group, where it 

 was obtained by Captain Wimberley on January 23, 1874, 

 which I refer to Scops nicobaricus, described by Mr. Hume 

 in ' Stray Feathers,' vol. iv. p. 283 ; but the plumage of the 

 present specimen exhibits a more unbroken rufous than that 

 described by Mr. Hume— more unbroken, indeed, than that 

 of any other rufous Owl which I remember to have exa- 

 mined. 



Mr. Hume speaks of the '' crown and entire upper surface " 

 being " more or less freckled and vermiculated with blackish 

 brown, and with the feathers of the rutf on the sides of the 

 neck and across the throat strongly marked with black.'' 



All these black and blackish-brown markings and vermi- 

 culations are absent from the present specimen, the entire 

 plumage of which, both above and below, is of a bright rich 

 rufous throughout, with the following exceptions only : — The 

 lower scapulars are partly white, as in Scops sunia ; the 

 outer webs of the primaries are barred with blackish brown, 

 and those of the first four are sparsely ocellated on the 

 external margin with fulvous white ; the outer webs of the 

 secondaries and tertials are similarly crossed with dark trans- 

 verse bars, but less distinctly ; the inner webs of all the wing- 

 feathers are broadly cross-barred with black, the interspaces 

 being blackish, mingled, especially on the tertials, with ful- 

 vescent rufous ; the rectrices are cross-barred with blackish 

 brown, the bars being most distinct on the inner webs of the 

 lateral tail-feathers ; the bastard wing is marked like the 

 first four primaries, and the adjacent edge of the wing itself 

 is very slightly mottled with white ; there is also a slight 

 mottling of pale fulvous and blackish brown on the under 

 wing-coverts. I may add that the bristly feathers round the 

 upper mandible (which are long and numerous) are whitish 



