SCOPS, 293 



Nicobars, already described by Gurney as a form of S. nicobarieus, 

 the whole lower surface is chestnut and the upper surface darker 

 red than usual, but still traces of the normal markings remain on 

 the wings and tail. In other skins the markings have disappeared 

 on the rectrices, but are retained on the wing-feathers and on the 

 abdomen. Again, in others faint obsolete marks appear on the 

 upper surface, and there is a complete gradation from these forms 

 into the ordinary grey S. giu (S. pennatus). Moreover, chestnut 

 varieties of all the local forms occur, of the small dark S. minutus 

 of Ceylon and the larger dark S. malm/anus of Malacca, as well as 

 of the large S. pennatus of the Himalayas. It should be added 

 that both Blyth and Jerdon unhesitatingly regarded S. sunia as a 

 rufous phase of S. pennatus, though some later writers have thought 

 differently. 



Young birds are greyish brown, speckled throughout, and with 

 indistinct cross-barring on both upper and lower surface. 



Bill dusky greenish ; iris pale golden yellow ; feet fleshy grey 

 (Jerdon). Third quill longest. Toes and extreme end of tarsus 

 bare of feathers. 



Length about 7*5 ; tail 2*75 ; wing 5*75 ; tarsus -85 ; bill from 

 gape '7. South Indian and Ceylon birds are smaller : wing 4*75 

 to 5*25. 



In the present species no less than seven of the names of Hume's 

 Catalogue are included, three of those names, however, being marked 

 by Hume as doubtful and invalid. In Sharpe's Catalogue, S. pen- 

 natus and several other forms were classed as races or subspecies 

 of the European Scops Owl, S. giu, and I think that this is a 

 correct view. Some of the birds found in North-western India 

 are typical S. giu, absolutely identical with grey European speci- 

 mens. As a rule, however, the Indian form S. pennatus is slightly 

 browner and darker and the aigrettes are generally rufous in part. 

 A rufous form of 8. giu occurs in Europe, but it never approaches 

 the Indian S. sunia, which is a remarkable instance of a bird's 

 assuming a rufous plumage locally. The following Indian named 

 forms of ^S^. giu besides S. pjennatus and iS. sunia require notice : — 



Scops rufiptennis is a small, rather uniformly-coloured bird from 

 the Carnatic. 



Scops gymnopodus was a name given by Mr. Gr. R. Gray to a skin 

 in which the lower portions of both tarsi were naked. Dr. Sharpe 

 tells me that, as no additional specimen has been found, he suspects 

 the skin, which agrees with normal S. pennatus in plumage, had 

 accidentally lost the feathers of the lower tarsus. 



Scops nicobarieus was founded on a very dark rufous skin, but 

 with the brown markings of the dorsal surface still conspicuous. 

 There are in the Hume collection precisely similar specimens from 

 the Malay Peninsula, 



Scops malayanus is a dark brownish form from Malacca, differing 

 from typical S. pennatus precisely as that does from the Western 

 S. giu. Wing 5-35. 



Scops minutus is the best marked of all these races and the 



