IN JKRDON OR STRAY FEATHERS. 357 



wood-brown, mottled with a little white, light rufous, and 

 black, irregularly distributed; the lower division, including the 

 belly, vent, thigh-coverts, and under tail-coverts is white, 

 speckled with deep brown and light rufous/' — Sharpens Cata- 

 log tie. 



75.— Scops lettia, Hodgs. 



Two comparatively large species of Scops Owls are found in 

 the Himalayas — the first E. lettia, altogether paler and some- 

 what more rufous in its tint, with toes quite bare or only 

 just overhung at their bases by the feet feathers ; and the 

 second E. plumipes, altogether a darker and browner bird, with 

 the toes feathered, (not bristled, as in carine in some 

 specimens, half way down the terminal joints, and in all to the 

 end of the subterminal one. 



In size they do not differ greatly, but lettia seems some- 

 what the bulkier bird, and plumipes to have the longest wings 

 and most powerful claws. 



Dimensions (of lettia.) — Length, 10 to 10"5 ; expanse, 19 

 to 20 ; wing. 6'6 to 7*2 ; fourth and fifth primaries the longest ; 

 tail, 3'2 : longest tail feathers exceed shortest, which are the 

 exterior ones, by 0*2 ; tarsus, which is densely and fully fea- 

 thered, 1*4 to 1*5 ; bill straight from edge of cere, 06 to 07 ; 

 from gape, 1*0 to 1*05. 



Description. — The feet in some greenish horny, in some yel- 

 lowish fleshy ; bill yellowish horny, brown at tip and on side 

 of upper mandible and edge of lower mandible. 



Plumage. — The forehead, a broad streak over the eye run- 

 ning down the interior webs of the aigrettes, feathers under 

 the eye and most of the ear-coverts, loral bristles and chin, 

 white, with a greyish or yellowish tinge ; most of the fea- 

 thers tipped, and some imperfectly barred with dark brown ; 

 the ear-coverts in most specimens much suffused with 

 rufous, and the longest of them broadly tipped with a deep 

 umber brown, which tippings form a continuation of the 

 ruff band ; the whole of the top of the head and back 

 of the neck, and the exterior webs of the aigrettes, back, 

 scapulars, tertiaries, lesser wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverts with a rufous fawn, or in some buffy yellow ground 

 colour, everywhere (except on the outer webs of the outer 

 scapulars, and in a broad irregular half collar at the base of the 

 neck,) very closety and finely freckled, or irregularly barred 

 with minute zig-zag lines of dark brown ; many of the 

 feathers, especially of the head and aigrettes, with large deep 



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