226 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



the contrasting vermiculations on every part of the body. In ray 

 specimen the maxilla and commissure are black, the rest of the 

 mandible yellow. 



It must be a rare bird in Cachar, as the only other local specimen 

 I have seen was a bird in the grey phase caught near Silchar. 

 (494) Scops spilocephalus. — The Spotted Himalayan Scops Owl. 

 Hume, No. 74 Ter. Blanford, No. 1175. 



Another rare owl of which I have seen but little. A young one, 

 caught in company with an adult female, is coloured as follows : — 



Plumage generally of a light — rather bright, rufous, all the feathers 

 of the head above back, rump and upper-tail coverts very finely 

 banded with dull black ; wings and tail as in the adult, but paler j 

 lower surface still paler rufous, the feathers tipped with a yet paler 

 tinge and indistinctly barred darker. 



Irides golden yellow ; legs dull fleshy, claws about the same ; 

 bill yellowish-white, the cere rather darker ; eyelids reddish-orange. 



The bird, which is, I think, a young female, has the wing about 

 5*6". It was Caught on the 9th of July. 



(495) Scops bakhamcena. — The collared Scops Owl. 

 Hume, No. 75 Ter., quat., quint. Blanford, No. 1178. 



The form found here in North Cachar is, of course, that which has 

 been separated as lettia. All the specimens I have seen have been 

 very typical specimens of this form, but, at the same time, have varied 

 very much inter se. I have now before me two birds — a male 

 and a female — taken at no great distance from one another and in 

 much the same kind of country, yet differing so much in coloration 

 about the head that a casual observer would at once jump to the 

 conclusion that they belonged to different species. The female has 

 the whole anterior crown and forehead as well very broad supercilia 

 a pearly white, more or less freckled and tipped with rufous and 

 brown ; the male has no white on the forehead, also the whole crown, 

 nape and back are far more richly coloured, although the black stip- 

 plings on the head are not so distinct nor yet so black as are those on 

 the female. 



I think the coloration of the iris depends a good deal on age. I 

 notice that nearly all young birds have the irides yellow or golden- 

 yellow, whilst most old birds (old, not merely adult) have them a deep, 



