74 BUBONINAE. 
exception of a few bars on the upper portion of the outer 
webs of the earlier primaries, (which are unmottled and slightly 
tinged with cream) ; all the rest of these bars are closely mottled 
and pencilled with brown ; the second, third, and fourth primaries 
are just perceptibly emarginate on tne outer webs, and the first 
to the fourth are conspicuously notched on the inner webs; the 
sides of the neck behind the dark line, the breast, sides, abdomen, 
thigh-coverts, a sort of creamy-grey, very soft and silky; the 
feathers with narrow rich brown central streaks and numerous 
minute, irregular, wavy, transverse pencillings ; greater portion of 
wing-lining, vent-feathers, and lower tail-coverts, silky greyish- 
white, the latter, some of them, with dark central streaks towards 
the tips ; tarsus-feathers silky greyish-white, with a faint buffy 
tinge towards the joint, and with several narrow, somewhat irregu- 
lar, transverse, brown bars; tail-feathers greyish-brown, with 
imperfect, transverse, mottled bars of very pale dingy-buff, and 
with the interspaces, too, more or less mottled with the same 
color. 
Other specimens answer well to the above description, except 
that in some specimens the whole of the colors are dingier, while 
the white of the lower abdomen, vent, lower tail and thigh-coverts 
is purer ; the tarsal plumes in some are entirely unbarred, and 
generally the markings are less pronounced and clear than in the 
first described specimen. In most birds the tarsal plumes are 
entirely unbarred. 
Only some specimens shew the silvery half collar on the neck 
described above ; in most the deep brown of the top of the head is 
continuous down to the broad buffy collar, at most a few feathers 
on the nape being greyish towards the tips. 
- On the whole, however, the coloration of specimens from the 
most distant localities differs but little —Hume’s “Scrap Book.” 
This Scops Owl is very rare, a single specimen was obtained at 
Aboo, by Dr. King, and a pair nesting at Hyderabad by Captain 
Butler ; these, I believe, are the only recorded instances of its 
occurrence within our hmits. 
Scops malabaricus, Jerdon. 
75quat.—Butler, Deccan; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 377; 
Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 97; Hume’s Scrap 
Book, p. 402. 
THE MALABAR Scops OwL. 
~ Length, 8 to 8-24 ; expanse, 10°5 ; wing, 5°95 ; tail, 2°75 ; exterior 
tail-feathers, 0:25, shorter than the centrals; tarsus, 1:05 to 1:08; 
bill from gape, 0°8. 
ak yellowish horny, darker above; irides dark yellow; feet 
yellow. 
The full description of S. bakkamuna already given renders 
any minute description unnecessary. 
Generally it may be said that only the point of the forehead, 
