330 SPOLIA ZEYLANIGA. 
Habits, &:c.—Found in the outskirts of jungle, or in isolated 
thickets and round lonely bungalows. A nocturnal species, 
feeding on insects and at times small birds and mammals. 
The cry according to Legge is 1 feeble ““ woot-woot.” This 
agrees with the note recorded for the Indian species. A. L. 
Butler,* however, says the note of the Ceylon bird is “* hoot- 
coorroo.” Legge noticed a similar call, but thought it was 
possibly the ery of Ninox scutulata. This cry may be heard 
at night at several of the wilder circuit bungalows and rest- 
houses in the northern forest tract. It isreally a four-syllabled 
ery, “‘ wook took-toorroc,”’ the first note not carrying so far 
as the others. I am inclined to put it down as the call of 
Batrachostomus moniliger, as the cadence seems more like 
the note of a Nightjar than of an Owl. If, however, Butler 
is correct, our Ceylon bird having a cry so different from the 
Indian form must surely be a distinct species. The point 
requires further elucidation. Little is known of the nidi- 
fication in Ceylon, but such a well-marked local race must 
breed in the Island. Indian forms are largely migratory, but 
breed in certain hill localities, laying three or four white eggs 
in holes of trees. 
ScoPS BAKKAMGNA (Blanford, Vol. IIL., p. 297). 
SCOPS BAKKAMUNA (Legge, p. 135). 
The Collared Scops Owl. 
Description.—Bristly loral feathers grayish or buffy-white 
tipped with black; facial disk grayish, or at times rufescent, 
with darker pencillings ; ruff feathers buff, beldly tipped 
with blackish-brown; the forehead, a broad eyebrow, and the 
inner webs of the ear tufts grayish or buffy-white pencilled 
with black; upper plumage buff or grayish finely vermi- 
culated with blackish-brown, and with brcad black shaft- 
stripes on some of the feathers ; crownand nape almost black, 
more or less mottled with buff; a more or less distinct collar 
on the hind-neck, formed by buff feathers with dark edges ; 
* Journal Bombay Nat. Hist. Society, Vol. XII., p, 570. 
