SCOPS MINUTTJS. 143 



belong to the present species; and should time and a more extended acquaintance than I have been able to 

 cultivate with this little Owl prove that I am right, it will be apparent that some examples assume a rufous phase, 

 and perhaps retain it through life. 



The dimensions of this specimen prove, I think, that it is too small to belong to the last species. 



Wing 4-7 inches; tail 2-0 ; tarsus 075. 



Iris yellow : bill greenish horn ; cere olivaceous ; feet brownish. 



The general hue of the upper surface is rufescent fulvous (the back and median wing-coverts more rufous than the rest), 

 mottled throughout with greyish, and faintly cross-rayed or pencilled with blackish ; forehead and crown with 

 not very perceptible shaft-lines of black ; lateral scapulars white, with black terminal patches : inner webs of tin- 

 greater wing-coverts mottled with blackish, the outer webs of the foremost series indented with white : 

 webs of the first five primaries deeply indented with white, with a black edge to each indentation ; inner 

 mottled and crossed with dark shadings, vermieulated with the rufous ground-colour; ground-colour of the tail 

 rufous-grey, mottled and cross-rayed with black ; outer web of the lateral feathers indented with white. 



Terminal portion of loral plumes white ; face and edge of forehead greyish, cross-rayed with dusky, and beneath the eye 

 with fulvous ; ruff-feathers rufous, with fine dark tips : throat and chest mottled with yellowish buff and dark- 

 grey on a white ground ; breast, flanks, and lower parts white, with cross-pencillings of dark sepia-brown and 

 rufous, the dark markings on the flanks developing into indistinct shaft-lines. Under wing buff- white, clo . 

 with dark brown and rufous near the edge ; under tail-coverts whitish, pencilled with dusky ; exterior side of tibia 

 and tarsus marked with transverse lines of rufous. 



Obs. This little Owl, in its ordinary brown plumage, approaches nearer to Scops malayanus than to any other A 



member of the genus ; in size and in its rufous phase it comes close to Scops sunlit. The closely stippled under 

 plumage peculiar to the present species does not exist in the Malayan bird, which likewise has the ground-colour 

 of the back to a considerable extent rufous, as also the sides of the breast-feathers. It is a much larger bird, the 

 wings of a male and female in the Norwich Museum measuring 5-7 and 5 - 5 inches respectively. Rufous examples 

 of Scops mimitus will, I think, always be distinguished from ordinary specimens of Scops sunia by their smaller 

 size, and by the less uniform character of the upper-surface plumage. 



Distribution. — This small Owl, which is peculiar to the island, appears to be widely diffused throughout 

 the hills of the Central Province, while it occurs rarely in various parts of the low country. Numerically 

 speaking it is a rare bird, very few examples having as yet been procured. It is not possible to say whethei 

 Kelaart ever met with it or not ; in continuation of the paragraph I have quoted in the last article, referring 

 to Scops sunia, be speaks, at page 96 of bis ' Prodronrus,' of " the allied species, Scops pennata, being a low- 

 country bird," which seems to imply that he was acquainted with a second small Scops Owl, none of which 

 genus inhabit the island, with the exception of the present one. 



To Mr. Bligh must be given the credit of obtaining the first authenticated example, which is the type of 

 the species now in the national collection. It was caught in the chimney of bis bungalow at Kotmalie, at an 

 elevation of nearly 4000 feet. He writes me to say that he has met with four examples in all, the most 

 of which I know are referable to the Haputale district. In May 1874 another specimen, referred to by 

 Mr. Whyte under the name of Glaucidiiim malabaricum, (the Malabar Wood-Owlet), was shot by Mr. J. K. 

 Hughes on the Kitlamoola Estate; a further individual was killed by Mr. Macefield on the Deltota Estate, 

 in April last year ; and some time previous to this another in the rufous stage was shot near Colombo, and 

 preserved in the new museum. The natives who brought me my young specimen at Trineomalie stated that 

 it was a well-known bird to them ; but I am, of course, unable to say that their remarks may not have referred 

 to the last species. In the early part of 1876 I once or twice observed a very small Owl frequenting the trees 

 in the Queen's House Gardens, which may probably have been this species. It will be seen, therefore, that 

 though this species inhabits the low country, it is evidently more partial to the hill-districts, affecting the 

 higher ranges as well as the upland valleys round Kandy. 



Habits. — This species appears to be an inhabitant of the outskirts of woods, gardens, isolated jungle-, 

 thickets, &c, in the vicinity of forest. Mr. Bligh, who has bad more experience of it than any one else, has 

 generally observed it in the neighbourhood of his bungalow; the type specimen found its way into the chimney, 

 and fell down into the fireplace stupified by the smoke. Another, to the best of bis belief, took up its abode 

 for many months near his house, testifying to its existence there by bringing into the verandah of the 



