SCOPS MINUTUS. 
143 
belong to tbe present species ; and should time and a more extended acquaintance than I have been able to 
cultivate with this little Owl prove that I am right, it will be apparent that some examples assume a rufous phase, 
and perhaps retain it through life. 
The dimensions of this specimen prove, I think, that it is too small to belong to the last species. 
"Wing 4-7 inches ; tail 2-0 ; tarsus 075. 
Iris yellow ; bill greenish horn ; cere olivaceous ; feet brownish. 
The general hue of the upper surface is rufescent fulvous (the back and median wing-coverts more rufous than the rest), 
mottled throughout with greyish, and faintly cross-rayed or pencilled with blackish ; forehead and crown with 
not very perceptible shaft-lines of black ; lateral scapulars white, with black terminal patches ; inner webs of the 
greater wing-coverts mottled with blackish, the outer webs of the foremost series indented with white ; outer 
webs of the first five primaries deeply indented with white, with a black edge to each indentation ; inner webs 
mottled and crossed with dark shadings, vermiculated with the rufous ground-colour ; ground-colour of the tail 
rufous-grey, mottled and cross-rayed with black ; outer web of the lateral feathers indented with white. 
Terminal portion of loral plumes white ; face and edge of forehead greyish, cross-rayed with dusky, and beneath the eye 
with fulvous ; ruff-feathers rufous, with fine dark tips : throat and chest mottled with yellowish buff and dark 
grey on a white grouud ; breast, flanks, and lower parts white, with cross-pencillings of dark sepia-brown and 
rufous, the dark markings on the Hanks developing into indistinct shaft-lines. Under wing buff- white, clouded 
with dark brown and rufous near the edge ; under tail-coverts whitish, pencilled with dusky ; exterior side of tibia 
and tarsus marked with transverse lines of rufous. 
Obs. This little Owd, in its ordinary brown plumage, approaches nearer to Scops malaycinus than to any other Asiatic 
member of the genus ; in size and in its rufous phase it comes close to Scops sunia. The closely stippled under 
plumage peculiar to the present species does not exist in the Malayan bird, which likewise has the ground-colour 
of the back to a considerable extent rufous, as also the sides of the breast-feathers. It is a much larger bird, the 
wings of a male and female in the Norwich Museum measuring 5-7 and 5-5 inches respectively. Rufous examples 
of Scops minutus will, I think, always be distinguished from ordinary specimens of Scops sunia by their smaller 
size, and by the less uniform character of the upper-surface plumage. 
Distribution. — This small Owl, which is peculiar to the island, appears to he widely diffused throughout 
the hills of the Central Province, while it occurs rarely in various parts of the low country. Numerically 
speaking it is a rare bird, very few examples having as yet been procured. It is not possible to say whether 
ICelaart ever met with it or not ; in continuation of the paragraph I have quoted in the last article, referring 
to Scops sunia, he speaks, at page 96 of his 1 Prodromus/ of “ the allied species. Scops pennata, being a low- 
country bird/’ which seems to imply that he was acquainted with a second small Scops Owl, none of which 
genus inhabit the island, with the exception of the present one. 
To Mr. Bligh must be given the credit of obtaining the first authenticated example, which is the type of 
the species now in the national collection. It was caught in the chimney of his bungalow at Kotmalie, at an 
elevation of nearly 4000 feet. He writes me to say that he has met with four examples in all, the most 
of which I know are referable to the Haputale district. In May 1874 another specimen, referred to by 
Mr. Whyte under the name of Glaucidium malabaricum (the Malabar Wood-Owlet), was shot by Mr. J. E. 
Hughes on the Kitlamoola Estate ; a further individual was killed by Mr. Macefield on the Deltota Estate, 
in April last year ; and some time previous to this another in the rufous stage was shot near Colombo, and 
preserved in the new museum. The natives who brought me my young specimen at Trincomalie stated that 
it was a well-known bird to them ; but I am, of course, unable to say that their remarks may not have referred 
to the last species. In the early part of 1876 I once or twice observed a very small Owl frequenting the trees 
in the Queen’s House Gardens, which may probably have been this species. It will be seen, therefore, that 
though this species inhabits the low country, it is evidently more partial to the hill-districts, affecting the 
higher ranges as well as the upland valleys round Kandy. 
Habits. This species appears to be an inhabitant of the outskirts of woods, gardens, isolated jungles, 
thickets, &c., in the vicinity of forest. Mr. Bligh, who has had more experience of it than any one else, has 
generally observed it in the neighbourhood of his bungalow; the type specimen found its way into the chimney, 
and fell down into the fireplace stupified by the smoke. Another, to the best of his belief, took up its abode 
for many months near his house, testifying to its existence there by bringing into the verandah of the 
