SCOPS. 97 



forehead to point including cere, which is ill-defined, 0*7 inch, from 

 ■gape 0'73 inch, height at front at margin of cere 0-29 inch, wings 

 when closed are even with the end of tail. Lower tail-coverts reach 

 to within 0'9 inch of end of tail. The third and fourth primaries are 

 the longest ; the first is 0'75 inch, and the second is 0-08 shorter. The 

 exterior tail feathers are 0"3 inch shorter than the central ones. 

 Weight 4 oz. (Hume, Stray Feathers, vol. i. p. 8.) 



Hab. — Sind, Beloochistan, Afghanistan and Gilgit ; also Ahmednug- 

 gur (Deccan) and Western Khandeish, Less common than E. penna- 

 tns, and occurs in Sind only during the winter months. 



Scops malabariCUS Jerd. Madr. Journ. X. p. 89; Sharpe, Gat. 

 Sfriges, p. 94. Sub-Sp. B. Scops griseus, Jerd. Madr. Journ. xiii. pt. 2, 

 p, 119. Scops lettoides, Blijth, J. A. 8. B. xiv, pi. i. p. 182. {ex. 

 Jerd. Ms.) Ephialtes malabaricus, Hume, Rough Azotes, ii. p. 402; Jerd. 

 Ibis. 1871, p. 348. Scops indicus, Gmel. Stray Feathers, v. 135; vii. 

 pp. 359, 506. Scops bakkamtena, Forst.; Hume, Nest and Eggs, hid. B. 

 p. 69. Ephialtes griseus, Hume, Rough Notes, p. 398; Murray, Hdbk., 

 Zool., S)'c., Sind, p. 121. — The Malabar Scops Owl. 



A prominent tuft of disunited- webbed, bristly white feathers (with 

 dark naked tips to the shafts, and traces on those nearest the eye of 

 dai'k cross bars,) on each side of the upper mandible at its base ; a 

 faint tinge of buSy at the anterior angle of the eye; rest of the lores, 

 feathers below and behind the eye, including ear-coverts, loose-webbed, 

 silky, and greyish white, with traces of faint minute transverse brown 

 bars; chin white; the feathers of the extreme tip somewhat bristly 

 and curving upwards round the lower mandible ; across the throat 

 and upwards, immediately behind the ear orifice, as far as the base of 

 the aigrettes, a band of creamy or pale buff feathers, with numerous 

 minute, transverse, wavy brown pencilliugs and bars ; those from the 

 aigrettes to the sides of the throat with conspicuous dark brown tip- 

 pings, which form the defining line of the disc, and a few of those in 

 the centre of the throat with similarly coloured spots at the tips ; fore- 

 head and a broad supercilium running up the inside webs of the 

 aigrette feathers, and a curved baud at the back of the head, extending 

 from the point of one aigrette to the point of the other, a silvery grey 

 or greyish white, the feathers with dark brown shafts and numerous 

 minute transverse pencillings of that colour, and some of them with 

 terminal spots ; centre of forehead and top of head, a triangular space 

 surrounded by this grey band, a rich dark brown, purest on the centre 

 of the forehead, with small twin spots or imperfect transverse bars 

 and mottlings, to a greater or less extent, of pale buff; the outside 

 webs of the aigrettes are similar, as are the feathers of the band 

 outside and contiguous to the curved grey band, which latter seems 

 continuous with the dark line of the outer webs of the aigrette, while 

 the former seems to start immediately above the centre of the eye ; 

 below the dark baud, at the base of the neck, is another band of very 

 similarly marked feathers, but whereas the dark brown predominates in 

 the former, the buff much predominates in the latter. The back, rump, 

 13 z 



