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AFRICAN SCOPS OWL. 
Scops Senegalensis, Swains. 
Variegated with grey, ferruginous, and black; ears, grey, 
without any marginal baud ; marginal base of the shoulders, 
whitish. Second quill-feather shorter than the fifth. 
So many authors of good repute* hare recorded 
that the little Homed Owl of Europe is also a native 
of Africa, that in the absence of positive proof to 
the contrary, we were hound to believe the fact. 
Every fresh examination, however, of these species, 
which on equally good testimony are asserted 
to inhabit widely different regions, diminishes the 
number of these supposed cosmopolites, and throws 
increased doubt upon the remainder. It is im- 
possible, of course, to know whether the bird we 
shall now describe is that which has been mistaken 
for the European scops ; hut if so, we hesitate not 
to pronounce it a decidedly different species. The 
specimen from the south of France is now before 
us, together with that we here designated, for the 
first time, under the name of S. Senegalensis. It 
may at once he known from the former, by being 
smaller, by the absence of the black marginal or 
semicircular line behind the ear, and by the whitish 
colour of the shoulders. The two first might be 
* Le Vaillant, Temminck, &c. 
