354 BIRDS OCCURRING IN INDIA NOT DESCRIBED 



these, like the extremities of the primaries, being thickly mot- 

 tled with sandy buff; about seven light bars distinguishable 

 on the tail, those on the outer rectrices inclining to whitish 

 towards the margins of both webs ; loral plumes whitish at 

 base, the shafts developing into long hair-like bristles ; over 

 the front of the eye a patch of white feathers, each tipped with 

 a terminal bar of blackish ; the feathers above the eye with 

 half-concealed white bases, forming an inconspicuous superci- 

 liary mark ; ear-coverts greyish white, the feathers round the 

 eye deep sandy brown, with narrow little shaft-streaks of ful- 

 vous ; behind the ear-coverts an indistinct ruff, composed of 

 orange-buff feathers, terminally barred with black ; the plumes 

 of the cheeks white, with orange-buff centres and a narrow 

 blackish subterminal line ; chin whitish ; across the throat a 

 continuation of the facial ruff equally indistinct, the feathers 

 being sandy-coloured at tip, with whitish bases and wavy-cross 

 lines of black ; chest sandy buff, the centres of the feathers 

 longitudinally blackish ; all the plumes with distinct blackish 

 lateral lines (excepting at the tips, which are minutely vermi- 

 culated), and more or less barred with white, this colour gra- 

 dually extending on the breast and flanks, which are almost 

 entirely white, with blackish or sandy rufous centres to the 

 feathers, all of which are more or less mottled with sandy, and 

 minutely vermiculated with wavy lines near the tips ; the 

 under tail-coverts like the belly, but having even less distinct 

 cross vermiculations ; thighs and feathered part of tarsus deep 

 sandy buff, with blackish cross lines ; under wing-coverts for 

 the most part whitish, with a few blackish cross lines, those 

 near the outer edge of the wing blackish, slightly mottled with 

 fulvous ; the lower series ashy-brown, fulvous at base, like the 

 inner lining of the quills, which is ashy brown, notched on the 

 outer and barred on the inner web with fulvous ; bill horn- 

 colour, yellowish at base of lower mandible ; feet apparently 

 yellow in life. Total length, 6'7 inches; wing, 5*1 ; tail, 2'5; 

 tarsus, 0"85 ; the hinder aspect entirely bare, feathered only for 

 0*45 in front ; the bare part being - 4-inch in length. 



Hob. — India. 



Observations. — I have given a very careful description of this 

 obscure species, as hitherto it has not been correctly identified by 

 Indian naturalists. Indeed its Indian habitat is by no means 

 certain, as some of Mr. Reeve's birds came from Malacca and 

 China, and it is just possible that it may have had a wrong loca- 

 lity affixed. Were it not for the exact correspondence of the 

 feathering on both tarsi, the species looks like Scops malayanus 

 with its tarsal feathers rubbed off. — Sharpe's Catalogue. 



