308 asionidjB. 



Stohczka, J. A. S. JS. xxx\u, pt. 2, p. 17; Huvie, Rour/h Notes, 

 p. 417 ; id. Ibis, 1871, p. 26; Jerdon, Ibis, 1871, p. 349 ; ' Blanford, 

 J.A.S. B. xli, pt. 2, p. 155 ; Cock S)- Marsh. S. F. i, p. 349;. 

 Godw.-Aust. J.A.S. B. xUii, pt. 2, p. 152; xlv, pt. 2, p. 68; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. M. ii, p. 212 ; Blijth ^- Wald. Birds Burni. p. 67 ; 

 Hume ^ Dav. 8. F. vi, p. 39 ; Hume, Cat. no. 80 ; Binf/ham, S. F. 

 ix, p. 148 ; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 160 ; id. in Humes N. S,- E. 2nd ed. 

 iii, p. Ill ; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1887, p. 434 ; Hn7ne, S. F. xi, p. 23 : 

 Salvadori, Ann. Mas. Civ. Oen. (2) v, p. 558 ; vii, p. 375. 



Glaucidium immaculatus, Hume, Bouffh Notes, p. 420 (1870). 



Athene minutilla, Gould, Birds of Asia, i, pi. 15 (1870). 



Coloration. Lores white with black tips, a narrow white super- 

 cilium ; cheeks, ear-coverts, and crown of head olive-bi'ovvn (varying 

 to blackish), with short transverse buff, white, or rufous bars and 

 spots ; a black spot on each side of the nape, followed by a fulvous 

 half-collar formed by deep buff feathers with brown borders ; re- 

 mainder of upper parts olive or rufous-brown, often more rufous 

 than the head, with narrow white, buff, or rufous cross-bars ; 

 some large white spots on the outer scapulars ; quills dark brown, 

 with buff', rufous, or white spots on the outer, and partial bars on 

 the inner margins, the two united by subobsolete pale bands, the 

 first two primaries and tips of the others unspotted ; secondaries 

 tipped with buff ; tail dark brown, with white, buff, or rufous bars, 

 interrupted at the shafts ; chin and sides of the neck behind the 

 ear-coverts white, followed by a broad olive band barred with 

 white or rufous across the throat ; upper breast and a stripe down 

 the middle of breast and abdomen to lower tail-coverts white ; 

 sides of breast barred dark olive and buff or rufous ; abdomen 

 white, with large rufous or olive spots, dark at the edges ; legs 

 olive, with pale bars. 



Young birds are much more uniformly coloured above ; they 

 have only a few buff streaks on the head, and no bars either there 

 or on the mantle. This is the G. immaculatum of Hume, Athene 

 minutilla of Gould. 



The birds of the Western Himalayas are browner, as a rule, 

 those of the Eastern Himalayas more rufous, some Sikhim skins 

 being tinged with ferruginous buff, but other Sikhim birds are 

 blackish olive, not rufous at all. Assamese and Burmese birds 

 also vary. 



Bill, cere, and feet yellowish green ; iris bright yellow ; claws 

 horny {Bingham). 



Length about 6-5 ; tail 2-5 ; wing 3-6 ; tarsus '8 ; bill from 

 gape "7. Males are a little smaller than females, and Burmese 

 birds are rather less in dimensions than Himalayan. 



Distribution. Throughout the Himalayas as far west as Murree, 

 being found in Sikhim from the base of the hills to a considerable 

 elevation, but chiefly in the Western Himalayas between 5500 and 

 7500 feet. This species occurs also in the hills south of the Assam 

 valley, and in Karennee and the Tenasserim I'anges, again at Perak 

 in the Malay Peninsula, and in Southern China. 



Habits, 4'<^. This is a bird of hill-forests, living partly on insects. 



