SCOPS MINUTTJS. 



(THE LITTLE SCOPS OWL.) 



(Peculiar to Ceylon.) 



Glaucidium malabaricuml, Whyte, Str. Feath. 1877, p. 201. 

 Scops minutus, Legge, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1878, i. p. 175. 

 The Little Owl of Planters in Ceylon. 

 Punchi-Bassa, Sinhalese. 



S. minimus : similis S. malayano, sed minor et saturatior, subtus obscurior et brunneo magis vermiculatus : colore 

 rut'escente dorsi guhe et prtepectoris absents. 



Adult. Length to front of cere (from skin) 6*0 inches ; culmen from cere 055 ; wing 4 - 75 to 4-85 ; tail 2 - l to 2*3 ; 

 tarsus 0*7 to 0-8 ; mid toe 0*75, claw (straight) 0*3 ; height of bill at cere 0-25. Weight 2^ oz. 



Iris yellow ; cere greenish ; bill olivaceous brown ; feet fleshy brown ; claws dusky. 



Above dark brown, the feathers of the head, back, rump, scapulars, tertials, aud wing-coverts crossed at the centre with 

 transverse spots of ochraceous, spotted finely and closely vermiculated on the rest of their surfaces with greyish 

 aud ochraceous grey, surrounding transverse irregular markings of blackish ; feathers of the hind neck crossed 

 with bold wavy markings of whitish, and margined with rufescent buff ; outer scapulars white externally, with 

 terminal black spots and oblique central bars of the same, edged with rufous ; the primary and outer secondary 

 coverts have their dark markings mingled with rufous patches, and set off with white spots near the tips of the 

 outer webs ; primaries aud secondaries brownish rufous, mottled with blackish brown, and the inner webs banded 

 broadly with the same ; the outer webs of the first five primaries crossed with five white, blackish-margined bars, 

 the tips paler than the rest of the feather aud mottled with dark brown ; tail brownish, washed with rufous on 

 some of the feathers near the base, mottled with blackish brown and crossed with five or six bars of buff-white 

 with black edges. 



Ear-tufts concolorous with the head, aud rufous at the base of the feathers ; loral plumes black, with white bases ; 

 facial disk grey, pencilled with blackish ; ruff pale rufous, the feathers edged and centred with blackish brown ; 

 chin whitish ; fore neck and under surface, together with the flanks, closely stippled with iron-grey on a white 

 ground, the feathers with broadish central stripes of blackish, and crossed on their concealed portions with fine, 

 wavy, transverse, black marks ; ou the lower parts the stippling is more open, the under tail-coverts being chiefly 

 white, with the markings confined to the tips ; legs rufescent, with wavy brown transverse marks ; under wing- 

 coverts whitish, shaded with rufescent, and crossed with irregular markings of brown. 



The above is a description of the type specimen in the British Museum. A second, killed near Kandy, is slightly 

 larger, having the wing 4-85 inches. It has the markings both above and beneath bolder and more open on the 

 bacl%, the transverse white spottiugs are larger, aud the black markings take the form of shaft-lines ; the ruff is 

 rich buff and much more deeply tipped with black, and the under surface from the breast downwards is whiter 

 and not so closely stippled, the markings taldng the form of open vermiculations, with bold mesial stripes on most 

 of the feathers. 



Another example in the Colombo Museum, kindly loaned to me by the authorities of that institution, is in a rufous 

 phase of plumage ; whether this is the result of youth or not, I am unable with certainty to say, as it has no signs 

 of nestling attire about it. Wing 4-82 inches. Iris yellow. 



Upper surface, in the distribution of its markings, similar in most respects to the second example above treated of, but 

 the mesial- stria; not pronounced, the tips of the feathers mottled with blackish grey and fulvous, and the webs 

 across the centre rufous : the lateral scapulars have the outer webs chiefly white, tipped with mingled black aud 

 rufous, the anterior quills with rufous-white marginal spots on the outer webs ; the lower ear-tuft feathers and 

 those of the ruff a decided rufous, the latter tipped with black, anterior to which is a fulvous-white patch on each 

 feather; the breast and flanks rufesceut white; the feathers of the sides of the breast and flanks with mesial 

 black stripes and blackish mottlings at the tips ; some of the stria? with a rufous edge, aud some of the feathers 

 rufous at their bases. 



Foung. A young bird in nestling plumage, which I had in confinement for a short time at Trmcomalie, appears to 



