IN JERDON OR STRAY FEATHERS. 355 



74 sex.— Scops malayanus, Hay. 



Adult. — Above dark brown, freckled with very minute ver- 

 miculations of sandy buff, rather coarser on the scapulars ; 

 nearly all the plumes of the upper surface variegated with 

 distinct spots or bars of white, in many cases concealed, but 

 very broad and distinct on the hind part of the neck, where 

 they form a tolerably pronounced collar ; outer scapulars largely 

 marked with sandy buff and white, forming a conspicuous 

 shoulder-patch ; the white predominating on the lower scapu- 

 lars, which are broadly tipped with blackish on the outer web; 

 head rather darker than the back, and slightly washed with 

 greyish ; most of the plumes blackish in the centre, and spotted 

 on both webs with sandy buff or whitish ; ear-tufts orange- 

 buff, vermiculated with brown towards the tips, and carrying 

 generally a subterminal white spot; wing-coverts rather darker 

 than the back, but rather more rufescent ; the mottlings very 

 distinctly rufous sandy colour ; the uppermost of the median 

 series externally marked with white spots ; the spurious quills 

 also notched with white on the outer web ; greater coverts 

 slightly shaded with grey, and largely marked with white on the 

 outer web ; primary coverts dark brown, barred indistinctly 

 with frecklings of sandy buff; quills brown, externally 

 barred with pale sandy buff, the tips of both primaries and 

 secondaries thickly mottled with yellowish buff towards the 

 tips; the primaries externally notched with white; lower back, 

 rump and upper tail-coverts dark brown, thickly vermiculated 

 with sandy rufous, and varied with half concealed sandy spots; 

 tail dark brown, mottled with sandy -buff vermiculations, es- 

 pecially towards the tips of the feathers, and crossed with five 

 sandy bars on the outer tail-feathers, four on the centre ones ; 

 lores whitish, the hair-like elongated shafts blackish at tip ; 

 feathers over the front of the eye also white, with narrow 

 blackish tips ; feathers round the eye sandy brown, mottled 

 with blackish ; ear-coverts greyish white, barred across with 

 brown, and having the appearance of being streaked with the 

 latter colour ; behind the ear-coverts an indistinct ruff of orange 

 buff plumes, tipped with black, those on the throat and cheeks 

 white, more narrowly tipped with a line of black; chin white; 

 sides of neck greyish, with very minute blackish vermiculations, 

 and distinctly spotted or barred here and there with white ; 

 chest white, the feathers washed with orange-buff and crossed 

 with several zig-zag lines of dark brown, these increasing in 

 number towards the tips of the plumes ; all the cross lines dis- 

 appearing on the rest of the underparts, which are nearly 

 entirely white, some of them showing a dark shaft streak, this 



