1210 APPENDIX I. 



five Jackdaws struck down one morning in quick succession by the female. The man's remark was that she " seemed 

 to be amusing herself ! " 



Pao-e 106. — Faleo peregrinator. Mr. Gurney, who has recently made a critical examination of my Ceylouese speci- 

 mens and a series of Indian Peregrines from the mainland, is disposed to consider F. atriceps from the Himalayas a 

 geographical race of F. peregrinator, " distinguishable by its abundant transverse markings, lack of rufous colouring, and 

 prevalent grey tints on the abdominal and tibial plumage."' The measurements of an example obtained at Dharmsala 

 are — wing 12-95, tarsus 2-0 inches. 



Mr. Parker writes me that he has recently discovered a breeding-place of this Falcon in Ceylon. The eyrie is 

 situated in the face of a large rock near Anamaduwa, on the Puttalam and Kuruuegala road. He is informed by a 

 Buddhist priest, who lives there, that a pair breed regularly every year. Captain Wade-Dalton tells me that it was in 

 1874 he shot his specimen, not 1875. 



Page 131. — Bubo nipalensis. Mr. Bligh speaks (in epist.) of the rapacity of this Owl ; a young bird, which was taken 

 from a hole in a tree in Haputale, and not old enough to cater for itself, nevertheless pounced on a village fowl when 

 ■aptured, and tore its head off ! 



« 



Page 135. — Seops bakkamuna. Mr. Hume is at issue with Mr. Sharpe and myself, in the matter of uniting the 

 rufous form S. malabaricus with this species. He considers it a good species, and says he has seen it from Ceylon. The 

 only rufous specimens I saw in the island were assuredly nothing but a rufous phase of »S'. bal-lcamuna, and what I have 

 examined in the British Museum appear to me to be the same. Ou page 136 I allude to one of these Owls as a 

 rufous variety of the common species. It unfortunately escaped from captivity. It must be remembered there is 

 a rufous phase of Seops minutus, aud further that the same character exists in other species. Should, however, further 

 investigation prove that this rufous Scops Owl is a good species, and that certain specimens from Ceylon belong to it, 

 then there will have to be added to the avifauna of the island Scops halababicus (The Malabar Scops Owl). 



.Si ups malabaricus, Jerdon, Madr. Journ. xiii. p. 119. no. 43; Sharpe, Cat. Birds, ii. p. 94 (1875, in part) ; Hume, 



Str. Feath. 1879, p. 83 (List B. of Ind.). 

 Ephialtes maJabaricus (Jerd.), Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 402 (1869). 



Adult females. " Length 8-0 to 8-4 inches : wing 5-95, expanse 10-5; tail 2-75; tarsus 1-05 to 1-08." (Hume.) 



•■ Iris dark vellow [that in my specimen, p. 136, was dark brown] ; bill yellowish horny, darker above ; feet yellow." 



i Ibid.) ' 

 Markings as in S. bdkkamuna ; but the parts above which are grey and buff in that species are deep brown aud rufous ; 



the chin, throat, ruff, and under surface rufescent, instead of whitish. 



Obs. Mr. Hume remarks, in his description, "a good deal smaller" than S. bakkamuna ; but this is not the case 

 (according to the above measurements) as regards Ceylonese examples of the latter, some females of which 

 measure only 5-7 inches in the wing, and none reach to the limit (6"75) given by Mr. Hume. 



Distribution. — Ceylon (Hume) : 1 lie southern parts of India, more particularly the mountain-regions ; East and West 

 Ghauts. Mr. Bourdillon has met with this species in the mountains of Travancore ; aud Jerdon records it from the 

 Malabar coast. 



In Ceylon, if such a species is found there distinct from what are unquestionably rufous varieties of S. bakkamuna, it 

 will most likely occur in the damp jungle-tracts of the west and south-west of the island, and on the western and 

 southern -purs of the mountain-zone, including the hills of the Kukkul Korale and the surrounding wooded tracts. 



In its habits and note this species must be quite similar to the Grey Scops Owl. 



Page 161. — Phodiius assimilis. Mr. MacVicar recently possessed a fine living example of this curious Owl. It 

 Lived in captivity four months, aud was then killed in order to figure in the Colombo Museum. This gentleman writes 

 me that he put it into a cage with two Little Scops Owls, one of which, he says, appeared to die of fright ; the following 

 morning nothing but the legs and head of the other were left! It is no wouder, therefore, that my correspondent 

 remarks that this cannibal was '• an awful fellow to eat, though he went about his work very gingerly, with the side of 

 Ins beak, as it were." 



Page 168. — Palceomis eupatrius. Mr. Parker has found this Parrakeet breeding in the N.W. Province, near 

 r-wewa, in February aud March. It lays in holes in trees, from 18 to 30 feet from the ground, and chooses open 

 spaces aud garden-clearings in the jungle. He has not succeeded in getting the eggs, but took a nest with three young 

 ones ; the hole was about 18 inches deep. 



