SCOPS. 23 



to discover any difference between them, S. brasilianus therefore occurs with 

 S. guatemalcB, or, as Mr. Eidgway would call it, S. vermiculatus, in Costa Rica, just as 

 it also occurs with JS. roraimce in British Guiana, the two birds being apparently quite, 

 distinct. 



S. brasilianus differs from all other species of iS'cops in our country, except aS'. hastatus, 

 in having a distinct shade of buff over the middle of the feathers of the under surface. 

 The pattern, too, of this portion of the plumage is continuous over the breast down- 

 wards, the breast not being darker and more closely marked than the abdomen as 

 in S. guatemalce. 



The references recoi'ding a Scops from the Line of the Panama Railway we have 

 placed under S. guatemalce, but they may belong to this species. The true 

 S. brasilianus occurs in the Cauca Valley, and thence southwards over the greater 

 part of Tropical South America. 



8. Scops hastatus. 



Megascops hastatus, Ridgw. Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. x. p. 268 ' ; Man. N. Am. Birds, ed. 2, p. 593 ". 



S. hrasiliano similis, sed supra omnino pallidior et grisescentior, maculis nigris prseoipue in pileo magis obviis : 

 subtus fasciis transversis magis numerosis et indistinctioribus. 



Hab. Mexico, Mazatlan (Xantus ^), Mineral de San Sebastian in Jalisco {A. C. Buller), 

 Tepic {W. B. Richardson). 



Mr. Ridgway separated Scops hastatus from S. brasilianus in 1887 ^, his types having 

 previously been considered to belong to S. guatemalce. One of these specimens, that 

 from Mazatlan (no. 23793), has been kindly forwarded to us, and we find its counterpart 

 in a specimen from Mineral de San Sebastian in Jalisco. Another specimen from 

 Tepic we think must also be referred to the same form, but it is decidedly darker and 

 the black spots, especially on the under surface, wider and more distinct. 



All these specimens have a wash of buff tint on the under surface (slighter in the 

 Tepic example) similar to, but not so strong as in, S. brasilianus ; the general markings, 

 too, of the under surface are nearly uniform and not denser on the breast. Both 

 these characters seem to separate 8. hastatus from S. guatemalce, and we are disposed 

 to keep this form from Western Mexico distinct from the more eastern and southern 

 bird. At the same time we must admit that the difference is not very pronounced, 

 and consists of a modification of colour only, a very variable character in these Owls. 



9. Scops barbarus. 



Scops flammeola, Salv. Ibis, 1861, p. 355 (nee Kaup) \ 



Scops barbarus, Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1868, p. 56 = ; Ex. Orn. p. 101, t. 51 "j Sharpe, Cat. Birds 



Brit. Mus. ii. p. 107*; Ridgw. Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. i. p. 103'. 

 Megascops barbarus, Hasbrouck, Auk, 1893, p. 262 °. 



Niger, pallide rufo punctatus et variegatus, superciliis in torquem nucbalem transeuntibus albo guttatis ; 

 scapularium pogoniis esternis distincte albo ocellatis, primariis fusco-nigris in pogonio externo rufescenti- 



