15 8 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



Bill greenish, yellowish at tip; cere greenish brown; iris bright yellow ; 

 edges of the eyelids black; feet brownish green; claws horn-colour. 



Length 8 inches, tail 3, wing 5'5, tarsus 1, bill from gape '8. The 

 female is of the same size as the male. 



I retain this bird as distinct from C. brama with considerable doubt. 

 As a rule, the Burmese birds are smaller than the Indian ones ; but this 

 distinction cannot always be maintained. Two birds which I measured at 

 Thayetmyo had the wings 5'8 inches in length, and another one, now in 

 the British Museum, has the wing 6-2. Indian specimens of C. brama 

 with wings of less than this length are not uncommon. The differences, 

 moreover, pointed out by Mr. Hume in the plumage of the two races are 

 too subtle to be of any value. Mr. Hume, as quoted by Mr. Sharpe, 

 sa ys .__ No doubt the general character of the plumage is the same as in 

 C. brama', but the spotting of the head is smaller and neater. The 

 general colour of the upper surface is a darker and purer brown; the 

 throat-band is more strongly marked. The tail exhibits five or six narrow 

 transverse bands or traces of these, against four or five far broader and 

 more distinctly marked bands in C. brama. The scapulars, too, seem to 

 be generally less barred and more spotted than is usually the case in 

 Indian specimens." 



The Burmese Spotted Owlet occurs at Thayetmyo and Prome and 

 between those two towns, and it does not appear to be found at a much 

 greater distance than fifteen miles from the Irrawaddy. 

 3 Dr. Anderson procured it in Independent Burmah, and it does not, s< 

 far as is at present known, occur elsewhere. 



This small Owlet is abundant to a degree in the Thayetmyo and 3 

 districts, inhabiting the holes of large trees and the roofs of zayats or 

 resthouses, so common near villages. It may be heard at all hours of the 

 day screeching and quarrelling with its neighbours in some old tamarind- 

 tree, in the holes of which tree it probably deposits its eggs in March and 



April. 



The Owls of this genus are of small size and the ear-tufts are absent. 



