70 BUBONIN.E. 



South Mahratta Country, but is nowhere numerically common. 

 It is a permanent resident where found, breeding from December 

 'to March. It is by no means choice in the selection of a site 

 for a nest. A cavity in an old tree, a cleft in a rock overhang- 

 ing a stream, a broad shelf on the clayey cliff of some river, or 

 even an old nest of the Fishing Eagle, are all at times made 

 use of by this very accommodating bird. The nest is seldom 

 well made; a few sticks mingled with feathers, if on a cliff; or 

 merely a few dead leaves and feathers if in a hole of a tree ; 

 but, when they appropriate an old nest of a Fishing Eagle, they 

 generally line it carefully with grass, fine twigs, and feathers ; 

 the eggs, two in number, are broad perfect ovals in shape, and 

 are white in color ; the shell close grained and pitted all 

 over but still more or less glossy. They average 2 '3 inches in 

 length by about 1*88 in breadth. 



GENUS, Scops, Savigny. 



Of small size ; head rather large ; large ear-tufts ; orifice 

 of ears moderate ; bill moderate, lateral margin somewhat curv- 

 ed ; nostrils round on margin of the cere ; disc imperfect ; 

 wings long and pointed, third and fourth quills longest ; tail rather 

 short, even, or slightly rounded ; tarsus moderate, feathered ; 

 toes naked and scaled, inner toe nearly equal to the middle 

 one ; claws moderate. 



Scops pennatus, Ilodgs. 



74. Epliialtes pennatus, Hodgs. Jerdon's Birds of India, 



Vol. I, p. 136 ; Butler, Deccan ; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 376 ; 



Murray's Verebrate * Zoology of Sind, p. 95 ; Swinhoe and 



Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 59 ; Hume's Scrap Book, 



p. 386. 



THE INDIAN SCOPS OWL. 



Length, 7*5 to 8'25 ; expanse, 15'5 to 19 ; wing, 5 to 6 ; tail, 

 2 '5 to 3 ; tarsus, 1 ; bill from gape, 0*8. 



Bill dusky-greenish, yellowish beneath ; irides pale yellow ; 

 legs and feet fleshy-grey or dingy fleshy. 



Above ashy-grey, more or less tinged with rufous or rufous- 

 grey ; the feathers dark shafted, finely mottled with brown, and 

 with a white subterrcinal spot ; wings more rufescent, and 

 without the white spots, except on the outer scapulars, as usual 

 and on some of the greater-coverts ; quills rufescent, with 

 darkish double bars, the interval between the bars dusky or 

 mottled, and the light spaces, or ground color, on some of the 

 outer primaries rusty- white in some specimens ; or, it may be 

 said, that the quills are dusky-rufescent, mottled with pale 

 bands ; the tail rufescent, with double bars, in some mottled 

 almost throughout ; beneath the feathers streaked dark-brown 

 and banded with white, and mottled rufous-grey and brown, 

 mostly grey on the upper part, and white on the lower part of 



