104 BTTBONIDJE. 



Scops spilocephalus (Blyth). The Bare-foot Scops-Oivl. 



Scops spilocephala {Blyth), Hume, Rough Draft N. 8[ E. no. 74 bis ; 

 Cat. 74 ter. 



So far as I know this species only breeds, indeed only occurs, in 

 the Himalayas, in well-wooded valleys, at elevations of from 3000 

 to 6000 feet. 



It lays from about the middle of March to the middle of June, 

 in holes of trees ; no nest appears to be made ; the eggs, from three 

 to five in number, are laid upon the bare wood. 



A nest of this species found near Kotegurh on the 30th April, 

 in a hole in an ash-tree some 30 feet from the ground, contained 

 five eggs ; so very large for the size of the bird that, but for both 

 parents being captured in the hole with them, one might have 

 doubted their pertaining to this species. 



Captain Hutton gives the following account of the nidification 

 of this species (he calls it pennatus, it is true ; but he has sent me 

 beautiful specimens of the birds, which leave no doubt that the 

 species referred to is the present one) : — 



" This Owl occurs on the Himalayas, in the neighbourhood of 

 Mussoorie, at an elevation of 5000 feet, and nidificates in hollow 

 trees, laying three piu'e white eggs, of a rounded form, on the rotten 

 wood, without any preparation of a nest. Dimensions of egg, 1"19 

 by 1 inch. The nest was found on the 19th of March." 



On a subsequent occasion he took a nest in April, and sent me 

 the eggs, which were considerably larger than those he first de- 

 scribed. 



Erom Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes :— " We found 

 a nest containing two eggs, in a dead tree, about 15 feet from the 

 ground, on the 1st of June, low down the hill-side ; the elevation 

 at which the nest was found was about 6000 feet. The eggs are 

 white, and 1-3 in length by 1-1 in breadth." 



He subsequently sent me the old birds, which proved to have been 

 correctly discriminated. 



The eggs are very round and perfect ovals, pure white, and not 

 very glossy, some of them fuUy as large as those of 8. haklcamuna 

 (ijriseus, Jerd.), which is a far larger bird. 



The eggs vary in length from 1-19 to 1-33 inch, and in breadth 

 from 1-0 to 1-13 inch ; but the average of a dozen eggs is 1-26 by 

 1-09 inch. 



Scops lettia, Hodgs. The Nepal Scops-Oivl. 



Ephialtes lempigi (Horsf.), apud Jerd. B. Incl. i, p. 138. 

 Scops lettia, Hodgs., Htime, Bough Draft N. ^ E. no. 75. 



The only eggs that I have seen, unmistakably pertaining to the 

 I^epal Scops-Owl, were taken the 22nd May, 1869, out of a narrow 

 cleft (completely hidden by 'a small drooping shrub) in an over- 

 hanging precijiicp, in the valley of the Surjoo, bpt\\een Petoragurh 



