358 
specimen of this species in the rufous phase, informs me that 
“they breed from March till August, in holes of trees, usually 
at no great height from the ground.”” He adds, “ this is a com- 
mon bird in our forests, (Gurhwal,) but I never yet took the 
trouble to take their eggs. Several pairs used to breed in the 
Botanical Gardens at Seharunpore, <A pair has been breeding 
for three seasons in a small tree in front of the forest Bungalow 
at Kotedwara. Four years ago, a young one, in the rufous 
phase, was brought to me in the month of July.” 
Dr. Jerdon’s description of this species in both phases of plum- 
age appears to me sufficiently correct, and the specimens that I 
possess agree, so far as the quills are concerned, with Kaup’s sub- 
genus Scops. The third and fourth quills are the longest, the 
first is emarginate on the inner web, and the second and third 
only slightly so. The wing, which is comparatively long and 
pointed, reaches to the end of the tail, whereas in the next species, 
as I shall notice further when dealing with that, the fourth and 
fifth quills are the longest, and the wing which is much rounded 
only extends over, at most, three-fourths of the tail. 
Capt. Hutton remarks that Hphialtes “as a genus, was long 
since pre-occupied in Entomology, and ought, therefore, to be 
changed, unless it has been banished from the nomenclature of 
that branch of Natural History.” I hope that some of my 
English correspondents will decide this question for us. 
I reproduce Mr. Blyth’s remarks on this species, which ap- 
peared in the Ibis for 1866; premising merely, that Z. Gymno- 
podus, Gray, is I believe a good species (vide No. 74 Bis) and 
Indian, and that I am almost certain, for reasons that I shall 
explain when dealing with that species, that Mr. Blyth’s own 
E. Spilocephalus is in reality identical, not with Pennatus, but 
with Gymnopodus. 
“74, Ephialtes Bakkameena (Pennant) ; Ofws Scops Japoni- 
cus, Schlegel (Faun. Japon. Aves tah. IX.) ; Scops Zorca Asiatica, 
Idem. Mus. P. B. Ot, p. 30. 
Of this small Indian Scops Owl, the Calcutta Museum can 
show a very complete gradation from the grey Scops Pennatus 
to the bright chestnut or ferruginous S. Swiia of Hodgson ; or 
if one semilink in the chain be wanting, it is supplied by an 
Indian specimen referred to the European Scops Owl by Mr. 
F. Moore. The specific identity of S. Pennatus and S. Sunia 
is certain, and they cannot even be admitted as different races ; 
yet Mr. G. R. Gray (in his B. M. Cat. of Birds of Nipal, 2nd 
edit., 1863) adopts S. Sunia for the rufous bird, while the grey 
bird (with S. Madlayensis, A. Hay, and S. Spilocephalus, nobis, 
as synonyms) he refers to the European #. Scops. Mr. F. 
