1845.] or little known species of Birds. 181 



" Le petit Hibou de la cote de Coromandel" as described by Son- 

 nerat, and upon which is founded Strix coromanda, Lath., and Sir. 

 coromandelica, Forster, does not appear to have been since verified ; 

 and the published drawing of an Owl, referred to this, in Hardwicke's 

 * Illustrations of Indian Zoology/ represents a species unknown both 

 to Mr. Jerdon and myself. It is not improbably a large Scops : this 

 being a genus particularly rich in Indian and Malayan species, some of 

 which are as yet not quite satisfactorily understood. Mr. Jerdon espe- 

 cially has made great efforts to elucidate them ; and the following is 

 about our present state of information respecting the group. 



1. Sc. rufescens, (Horsfield), Lin. Tr. xiii. 140. This species has 

 been determined with the assistance of Hugh E. Strickland, Esq., who 

 has kindly examined the original specimens of the birds described 

 in Dr. Horsfield's Javanese list, and has favored me with more minute 

 notices of some of them, and identifications of others with species pre- 

 viously described. Elsewise, as Dr. Horsfield had given the entire 

 length as eight inches only, I had some hesitation in agreeing with Mr. 

 Jerdon in referring a Malacca specimen in the collection of Lord 

 Arthur Hay, to the present species ; but the difficulty is now removed 

 by my friend Mr. Strickland, and I have the pleasure of giving the fol- 

 lowing description from Lord A. Hay's specimen. Length about 

 eleven inches, of which the tail measures four inches and three-quar- 

 ters ; wing six and three-quarters ; tarse an inch and a quarter. General 

 colour ferruginous- brown, much paler below ; the forehead, lower part 

 of disk and aigrettes in part, conspicuously white, with a few minute 

 dark speckles: upper parts marked with whitish spots along the 

 shaft of each feather ; the lower variegated with dusky and whitish 

 in cross- striae ; primaries and tail with numerous broad dusky bars, 

 amounting to about twelve in number on the latter : tarsal feathers 

 not continued over the joint at the base of the toes. A strongly 

 marked species, apparently peculiar to the Malay countries. 



The next in point of size is 



2. Sc. lettia, Hodgson, As. Res. xix, 176 : probably Sc. lempiji 

 apud Horsfield, from Assam, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1839, p. 155. This 

 is the largest of three closely allied species, the distinctions of which 

 were first observed by Mr. Jerdon. Its wing measures from six inches 

 to six and a half, apparently according to sex ; and the young have a 



