Plate LI. 



SCOPS BARBABUS. 



(GUATEMALAN OWLET). 



Scops flammeola 

 Scops barbarus 



Salvin, Ibis, 1861, p. 355 (err.), 

 Scl. et Salv. P.Z.S. 1868, p. 56. 



Niger, pallido rufo punctatus et variegatus : superciliis in torquem nuchalem transeuntibus albo guttatis : scapu- 

 lariuni pogoniis externis distincte albo ocellatis : primariis fuseo-nigris, in pogonio externo rufescenti-albo septies 

 transfasciatis : cauda mgrieante, rufescente quinquies transfasciata : subtus nigricans, praecipue in ventre ocellis albis 

 frequenter aspersus ; crisso albicante, nigro punctato : tarsis pro majore parte dense vestitis ; horum autem parte 

 augusta terminal! cum digitis omnino nudis : long, tota 7*0, alas 5*4, eaudae 2'5, tarsi 1*0. 



Hab. in Guatemala, prov. Verse Pacis (Sal 



In his additional list of Guatemalan birds, published in the "Ibis" for 1861, Salvin has 

 referred to a specimen of Scops flammeola, obtained by Mr. Eobert Owen in the mountains of 

 Santa Barbara near San Geronimo, Vera Paz. A recent examination of this skin has convinced 

 us that it was wrongly determined, and belongs to a species essentially distinct from that figured 

 in the foregoing plate. Scops barharus is, as we have already stated, of about the same size as 

 S. flammeola, but, as is shewn in our original description of this bird, may be at once 

 distinguished by a comparison of the tarsi of the two species. In Scops flammeola (Fig. 1) the 

 tarsus is wholly covered all round by short thick-set feathers, which extend down to the basal 

 phalanges of the toes, quite up to if not slightly beyond the joints. In the present species (Fig. 2) 

 the feathering of the tarsus does not descend quite so far, and leaves the distal extremity 

 bare like the toes. This will be readily observed in the accompanying figures of the feet of 

 the two birds, to which is added, for the sake of comparison, a corresponding figure of the foot 

 of Scops nudipes (Fig. 3). 



Other well-marked characters of plumage accompany the diversity already noticed. In 



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