158 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
Bill greenish^ yellowish at tip ; cere greenish brown ; iris bright yellow ; 
edges of the eyelids black ; feet brownish green ; claws horn-colour. 
Length 8 inches, tail 3, wing 5*5^ tarsus 1, bill from gape '8. The 
female is of the same size as the male. 
I retain this bird as distinct from C. brama with considerable doubt. 
As a rulCj the Burmese birds are smaller than the Indian ones ; but this 
distinction cannot always be maintained. Two birds which I measured at 
Thayetmyo had the wings 5*8 inches in length_, and another one, now in 
the British Museum, has the wing 6*2. Indian specimens of C. brama 
with wings of less than this length are not uncommon. The differences, 
moreover, pointed out by Mr. Hume in the plumage of the two races are 
too subtle to be of any value. Mr.. Hume, as quoted by Mr. Sharpe, 
says : — " No doubt the general character of the plumage is the same as in 
C. brama-, but the spotting of the head is smaller and neater. The 
general colour of the upper surface is a darker and purer brown; the 
throat-band is more strongly marked. The tail exhibits five or six narrow 
transverse bands or traces of these, against four or five far broader and 
more distinctly marked bands in C. brama. The scapulars, too, seem to 
be generally less barred and more spotted than is usually the case in 
Indian specimens.^^ 
The Burmese Spotted Owlet occurs at Thayetmyo and Prome and 
between those two towns, and it does not appear to be found at a much 
greater distance than fifteen miles from the Irrawaddy. 
Dr. Anderson procured it in Independent Burmah, and it does not, so 
far as is at present known, occur elsewhere. 
This small Owlet is abundant to a degree in the Thayetmyo and Prome 
districts, inhabiting the holes of large trees and the roofs of zayats or 
resthouses, so common near villages. It may be heard at all hours of the 
day screeching and quarrelling with its neighbours in some old tamarind- 
tree, in the holes of which tree it probably deposits its eggs in March and 
April. 
The Owls of this genus are of small size and the ear-tufts are absent. 
