G-enus PHODILUS *. 



Of smaller size than Syrnium ; disk more perfect above, with a patch of stiff feathers on each 

 side of the anterior portion. Wings rounded, reaching to the end of the tail. Legs feathered. 

 Toes covered with hairs ; inner anterior toe longer than the outer one ; middle claw slightly 

 serrated, as in Stria?. 



PHODILUS ASSIMILIS. 



(THE CEYLON BAY OWL.) 



(Peculiar to Ceylon.) 



Phodilus badius, Hume, Stray Feathers, 1873, p. 429 ; Whyte, ibid. 1877, p. 353. 

 Phodilus assimilis, Hume, Stray Feathers (Notes), vol. v. p. 137. 

 The Bay Screech-Owl, apud Jerdon. 

 Bassa, Sinhalese. 



P. similis P. badio, sed saturatior et teetricibus exterioribus nigricantibus : primariis intus nigricantibus nee rufis : 

 plaga subalari tectricum majorum nigra nee rufa : plumis pectoralibus nigro bipunctatis. 



Adult, presumed male (vide Plate). Length (from skin) 10-5 inches ; wing 7*1; tail 3-5; tarsus 1-55 ; middle toe 1-1 ; 

 claw (straight) 065 ; outer posterior toe 0-15. 



Adult, presumed female (British Museum). Wing 7"8 inches. 



Female. "Length 11-5; wing 8-12, expanse 27-5 ; tail 3-5; tarsus 2-0 (?); mid toe and claw 1*5" (Whyte). 



" Lis dark brown ; bill greenish white, with a dash of dark brown on edge of upper mandible, and dark spot on the 

 nostrils ; feet pale whitish green : claws pale ash, ridges of the scutse of the toes of a darker green than the 

 prevailing colour" (Whyte). Cere probably olivaceous. 



Porehead and facial disk pallid reddish grey ; loral plumes blackish at the base, the webs about the centres of the 

 feathers rufous-brown ; ruff-feathers white, very faintly tinged with rufous, and with a terminal black bar and 

 the external tip rufous ; crown and occiput with the back, scapulars, and lesser primary wing-coverts rufous, 

 deepest on the head and slightly brownish on the other parts ; feathers of the head with dark shafts and terminal 

 black spots ; a light buff: patch on the centre of the occiput, on which the terminal dark spots are larger ; back 

 and sides of neck, inner webs of the scapulars and tertials, and the centre feathers of the median wing-coverts 

 brownish buff ; the buff feathers of the neck and wiug-coverts with terminal brown spots, and the rufous portions 

 of the back, together with the rump and upper tail-coverts, with a series of central, alternating white and black 

 spots ; least wing-coverts rufous-brown ; outer webs of the primaries aud secondaries, excepting the first 

 primary, rufous, barred with black : inner webs blackish grey, barred with black ; outer webs of the longer winglet- 

 feathers and of the first primary white, barred with black ; second and third primaries with the interspaces near 

 the tip white ; tail rufous, narrowly barred with eight wavy blackish bars, each feather with a white terminal 

 spot enclosing a black one. 



Throat and chest buff, changing on the breast, flanks, abdomen, and thighs into delicate rufous isabelline, each feather 



* This genus has hitherto been associated with Stria) in the family of Strigidse. Professor Milne-Edwards has, 

 however, lately pointed out, in an article in the ' Comptes Eendus,' Dec. 1877, that its affinities structurally are with 

 Syrnium. The posterior margin of the sternum is deeply cleft, the structure of the tibia is similar to that of this latter 

 genus, the clavicle is also similar, and the skull differs in its formation from that of Strix. Its external appearance, 

 however, is that of this latter genus, and the claw of the middle toe is, like it, serrated. 



Y 



