102 



BUBONID^E. 



that the two species are quite distinct. Lord Walden has two specimens 

 precisely similar ; and they seem to me to represent the young of some 

 species of the S. malayanus type. Immature they certainly are; but they 

 present too many differences for me to refer them to S. Balli. The type of 

 the latter has been lent to me by Mr. Hume, and as the wings and tail in . 

 modestus are doubtless those of the adult bird, I draw attention to the follow- 

 ing characters which as it seems to me must separate the two ; for in no other 

 species of Scops is such a difference known between the young and the adult 



Scops Balli. 



Adult. Greater wing coverts and 

 secondary quills dull brown, exter- 

 nally rufous chocolate, with minute 

 vermiculations of black, and a few 

 small notches of fulvous. 



Primary coverts nearly uniform 

 blackish brown, vermiculated with 

 rufous chocolate at the tips. Pri- 

 maries dull brown, rufescent at 

 the tips, notched with white on the 

 outer web, the interspaces inclining 

 to rufous chocolate. 



Tail for the most part rufous 

 chocolate, like back, with indications 

 of lighter bars, the outer feather 

 externally notched with whitish. 



Scops modes tus,* Juv. 



Greater wing coverts and second- 

 ary quills alternately barred with 

 sandy rufous and dark brown, the 

 latter bars rather broken up into 

 vermiculations, especially on outer 

 margin ; the greater coverts with 

 white spots near the tip of outer web, 

 not present in the secondaries. 



Primary coverts and primaries dull 

 brown on inner web, but regularly 

 banded with sandy rufous and dark 

 brown on outer web ; some of the 

 primaries with whitish notches. 



Tail regularly banded with dark 

 brown and sandy rufous, the dark 

 bars somewhat broken up into vermi- 

 culations on the centre feather. 



Again, the feathering of the tarsus is very different, not extending nearly so 

 far down the leg in S. Balli as it does in S. modes/us. 



The above is Mr. Sharpe's description in its entirety of this rare species. 



98. Scops modestuS; Wald. Ann. and Mag. N. History, vol. xiii. 

 p. 123, 1874; Ibis. 1874, p. 129 ; Sharpe, Cat. Striges, B. M., pp. 101-102. 



The following is Lord Walden's description, taken from the Annals and 

 Mag. Nat. History, p. 12 (1874) : 



*Scops Modestus. Wald, Ann, & Mag. N. H. xiii., p. 12. id. et Ibis. 1874, p. 129. 



