356 BIRDS OCCURRING IN INDIA NOT DESCRIBED 



being, however, more apparent on some of the feathers of the 

 chest ; under tail-coverts pure white, with only the faintest 

 remains of zig-zag lines at the tips of a few of them ; thigh- 

 feathers tawny, gradually shading off into white on the tarsus, 

 and distinctly mottled with dark brown cross lines ; under wing- 

 coverts yellowish white, the outermost dark bi*own, spotted with 

 tawny buff, the lower series ashy brown, yellowish at the base, 

 and thus resembling the inner lining of the quills, which are 

 ashy brown, barred with yellowish on the inner web ; the outer 

 web of the primaries notched with buff, and the tips of all 

 mottled with dull sandy colour ; bill dull horn-colour ; the under 

 mandible yellowish ; feet apparently yellowish flesh-colour in 

 life. Total length, 7'5 inches; wing, 5"5 ; tail, 2'4 ; tarsus, 1. 



Rufous phase. — Above tawny rufous, with very fine (almost 

 indistinguishable) vermiculations ; the hind neck mottled with 

 fulvous bars, some of them inclining to white ; scapulars exter- 

 nally white, with a blackish terminal bar; some of the greater 

 wing-coverts tipped, and the bastard wing externally notched 

 with white ; the vermiculations rather more coarsely vermiculated 

 with blackish ; quills sandy rufous, externally barred with brown ; 

 the primaries notched with white, giving the wing a chequered 

 appearance ; the inner webs brown, notched with fulvous ; tail 

 sandy brown, paler at tip, and crossed with five bands of pale 

 rufous ; head deeper tawny rufous than the back, more strongly 

 mottled with black ; lores and feathers over the forepart of the 

 eye whitish, narrowly tipped with dusky, the lores shaded with 

 rufous ; sides of face and ear-coverts greyish, indistinctly barred 

 across with black ; chin whitish ; sides of neck and chest sandy 

 orange, mottled with brown, and with more or less concealed bars 

 of white ; the breast orange, slightly vermiculated and barred 

 with white ; the black streaks to the centres of the feathers very 

 broad, less so on the abdomen and flanks ; the lower parts of the 

 body being white as in the brown phase; the vermiculations not 

 numerous on the belly and disappearing on the under tail- 

 coverts ; bill dusky, yellowish on the under mandible. Total 

 length, 7 inches; wing, 535; tail, 2 - 6; tarsus, 0*95. 



Observations. — This is a very well-marked form of the /Scops 

 giu group, and is by no means so very different in appearance 

 from S. capensis ; but it is chiefly remarkable for the ocellated 

 appearance of the head and hind neck, the latter having very 

 broad white bars, so as to form a striking contrast to the head 

 and back ; the ear-coverts are dusky as in «S. stictonotus. The 

 character of the under surface is peculiar, and has been well 

 commented on by Lord Walden in his original description : — 

 " The under surface is distinctly divided into two equal por- 

 tions — the first, including the chin, throat, and breast, being 



