1846.] Notices and Descriptions of various New, fyc. 281 



barred rufescent- whitish and dusky, the outermost scapularies having 

 the large white spots (common to most Owls,) in general conspicuously- 

 developed : the lower- parts are barred throughout, dusky and white on 

 the belly and flanks, rufous and dusky on the breast, except the vent 

 and lower tail- coverts, which are spotless white ; tail dusky, with eight 

 or nine whitish bars, somewhat broader than those of the preced- 

 ing species. This inhabits the Malabar Coast and Travancore ; and the 

 Society is indebted for specimens of it to Mr. Jerdon. 



3. At h. radiatus, (Tickell) : Ath. erythropterus, Gould ; Noctua perli- 

 neata, Hodgson ; N. cucuioides (?) apud Jerdon, Catal. Upper-parts 

 uniformly barred with close rays, rufescent-whitish and dusky; the 

 wings more distantly barred with the same, but the rufous tinge deeper, 

 and some of the greater coverts have, in general, conspicuous white 

 spots; the great alars are still deeper rufous, barred with dusky 

 throughout, and marked much as in the first species ; lower- parts barred 

 whitish and light dusky, and the under tail-coverts white as in the 

 others. This species occurs in most parts of the country, as in the 

 Himalaya, Upper and Central India, the eastern coast of the Peninsula, 

 and Mr. Jerdon says " Travancore and Malabar ;" but it is probable 

 that he here refers to Ath. malabaricus, in which case the synonyme of 

 cucuioides apud Jerdon, must be transferred. About Allahabad, as Dr. 

 Stewart informs me, it is particularly numerous. 



Although the first of these three species accords with the descriptions 

 of Ath. castanopterus of Java, it may yet prove (upon comparison of 

 specimens) to be an allied species rather than the same ; but it would 

 not be the only Malayan species that has turned up in Ceylon, and in 

 no part of Continental India as yet : the same collection contained ex- 

 amples of Vespertilio pictus, (or Kerivoula picta, apud Gray,) perfectly 

 identical with Javanese specimens ; whereas, from Continental India, I 

 have only seen a nearly allied species, which I presume to be Kerivoula 

 Sykesi of Gray. The curious Bittern, Tigrisoma melalophos, (Raffles,) 

 is sent from Ceylon, and this is new to the fauna of cis-Gangetic India, 

 though the" Society has received it from Arracan : Ephialtes lempiji of 

 Ceylon and Malabar is again identical with the species common 

 throughout the Malay countries ; but it has been erroneously identified 

 with Eph. lettia, (Hodgson,) or the closely allied (if different) Eph. 



lettioides v. griseus of Jerdon. Athene castanopterus I have never seen 



2 p 



