SCOPS MINUTUS. 
(THE LITTLE SCOPS OWL.) 
(Peculiar to Ceylon.) 
Glaucidium malabaricum\, Whyte, Str. Feath. 1877, p. 201. 
Scops minutus, Legge, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1878, i. p. 175. 
The Little Owl of Planters in Ceylon. 
Punchi-Bassa, Sinhalese. 
S. minimus : similis S. malayano, sed minor efc saturatior, subtus obscurior et brunneo magis vermiculatus : colore 
rufescente dorsi guise et praepectoris absente. 
Adult. Length to front of cere (from skin) 6-0 inches ; culmen from cere 0-55 ; wing 4’75 to 4-85 ; tail 2T to 2-3; 
tarsus 07 to 0 - 8 ; mid toe 075, claw (straight) 03 ; height of bill at cere 025. Weight 2J oz. 
Iris yellow; cere greenish ; bill olivaceous brown ; feet fleshy brown ; claws dusky. 
Above dark brown, the feathers of the head, back, rump, scapulars, tertials, and wing-coverts crossed at the centre with 
transverse spots of ochraceous, spotted finely and closely vermieulated on the rest of their surfaces with greyish 
and ochraceous grey, surrounding transverse irregular markings of blackish ; feathers of the hind neck crossed 
with bold wavy markings of whitish, and margined with rufescent buff; outer scapulars white externally, with 
terminal black spots and oblique central bars of the same, edged with rufous ; the primary and outer secondary 
coverts have their dark markings mingled with rufous patches, and set off with white spots near the tips of the 
outer webs ; primaries and secondaries brownish rufous, mottled with blackish brown, and the inner webs banded 
broadly with the same ; the outer webs of the first five primaries crossed with five white, blaekish-margined bars, 
the tips paler thau the rest of the feather and mottled with dark brown ; tail brownish, washed with rufous on 
some of the feathers near the base, mottled with blackish brown and crossed with five or six bars of buff-white 
with black edges. 
Ear-tufts concolorous with the head, and rufous at the base of the feathers ; loral plumes black, with white bases ; 
facial disk grey, pencilled with blackish ; ruff pale rufous, the feathers edged and centred with blackish brown ; 
chin whitish ; fore neck and under surface, together with the flanks, closely stippled with iron-grey on a white 
ground, the feathers with broadish central stripes of blackish, and crossed on their concealed portions with fine, 
wavy, transverse, black marks ; on the lower parts the stippling is more open, the under tail-coverts being chiefly 
white, with the markings confined to the tips ; legs rufescent, with wavy brown transverse marks ; under wing- 
coverts whitish, shaded with rufescent, and crossed with irregular markings of brown. 
The above is a description of the type specimen in the British Museum. A second, killed near Kandy, is slightly 
larger, having the wing 4-85 inches. It has the markings both above and beneath bolder and more open on the 
back, the transverse white spottings are larger, and the black markings take the form of shaft-lines ; the ruff is 
rich buff and much more deeply tipped with black, and the under surface from the breast downwards is whiter 
and not so closely stippled, the markings taking the form of open vermiculations, with bold mesial stripes on most 
of the feathers. 
Another example in the Colombo Museum, kindly loaned to me by the authorities of that institution, is in a rufous 
phase of plumage ; whether this is the result of youth or not, I am unable with certainty to say, as it has no signs 
of nestling attire about it. Wing 4-82 inches. Iris yellow. 
Upper surface, in the distribution of its markings, similar in most respects to the second example above treated of, but 
the mesial striae not pronounced, the tips of the feathers mottled with blackish grey and fulvous, and the webs 
across the centre rufous ; the lateral scapulars have the outer webs chiefly white, tipped with mingled black and 
rufous, the anterior quills with rufous-white marginal spots on the outer webs ; the lower ear-tuft feathers and 
those of the ruff a decided rufous, the latter tipped with black, anterior to which is a fulvous-white patch on each 
feather ; the breast and flanks rufescent white ; the feathers of the sides of the breast and flanks with mesial 
black stripes and blackish mottlings at the tips ; some of the striae with a rufous edge, and some of the feathers 
rufous at their bases. 
Young. A young bird in nestling plumage, which I had in confinement for a short time at Trincomalie, appears to 
