IN JERDON OR STRAY FEATHERS. 361 



fourth are conspicuously notched on the inner webs ; the 

 sides of the neck belli ud the dark line, the breast, 

 sides, abdomeu, thigh-coverts, a sort of creamy grey, very 

 soft aud silky ; the feathers with narrow rich brown central 

 streaks and numerous minute irregular wavy transverse 

 pencillings ; greater portion of wing-lining, vent feathers, 

 and lower tail-coverts, silky greyish white, the latter, some of 

 them, with dark central streaks towards the tips ; tarsus fea- 

 thers silky greyish white, with a faint buffy tinge towards the 

 joint, and with several narrow, somewhat irregular, transverse, 

 brown bars ; tail feathers greyish brown, with imperfect, 

 trausverse mottled bars of very pale dingy buff, and with the 

 interspaces, too, more or less mottled with the same colour. 



Other specimens answer well to the above description, except 

 that in some specimens the whole of the colours are dingier, 

 while the white of the lower abdomen, vent, lower tail and 

 thigh-coverts is purer ; the tarsal plumes in some are entirely 

 unbarred, and generally the markings are less pronounced 

 and clear than in the first described specimen. In most birds 

 (six out of eight of those now before me) the tarsal plumes are 

 entirely unbarred. 



Only some specimens shew the silvery half collar on the neck 

 described above ; in most the deep brown of the top of 

 the head is continuous down to the broad buffy collar, at most 

 a few feathers on the nape being greyish towards the tips. 



On the whole, however, the colouration of specimens from the 

 most distant localities differs but little. — Hume, " Rough Notes." 



75 quat. — Scops malabaricus, Jerd. 



Dimensions. — Females (two specimens only, measured in the 

 flesh). — Length, 80 to 8 - 24 ; expanse, 16*5; wing, 5-95; tail, 

 2-75; exterior tail-feathers, 0*25 shorter than the central ; tarsus, 

 1-05 to 1-08; bill, straight to edge of cere, 0'43 to 05 ; 

 from gape, - 8. 



Description. — Feet yellow; irides dark yellow; bill yellow- 

 ish horny, darker above. 



Plumage. — The full description of <S. indicus already given 

 renders any minute description of this species unnecessary. 



Generally it may be said that only the point of the forehead 

 and a narrow streak over the eye is white ; and these parts 

 instead of being silvery-white, as in griseus, are fulvous ; 

 again, the chin, throat, ruff feathers, breast, and abdomen, 

 instead of being white or creamy white, as in griseus, are a rich 



