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The song of the Scops Owl Otus scops is well known in the mainland of Japan. Its song can be usually heard "But-Po-so", each of whose 3-syllables means Buddha-code-priest respectively, all being related to the Buddhism. But we found the song of the same species is very different in the Ryukyu Islands. This difference is shown in this paper using soundspectrograms. The population on these islands is treated as a different subspecies O. s. elegans from the mainland subspecies O. s. japonicus (Orinith. Soc. Japan. 1975. Check-list of Japanese birds). This subspecies is very common in many islands, and can be observed not only in forests but also near or in villages, while the mainland subspecies is now scarce in forests. We went around these islands sporadically from 1960 to 1976, showing the data in Table 1. The song of O. s. elegans was heard from March to June in eight islands investigated except Yonakuni-jima. The soundspectrograms of the song of O. s. elegans and.O. s. japonicus are shown in Fig. 1. The song of O. s. elegans is one-syllable "Koho", though some individuals may sing "u-koho", of which "u" is a slight call. The tone is softer and lower than that of the mainland subspecies. All songs are very similar throughout the Ryukyu Islands. However, the number of songs per minute seems to be a little different from island to island. For example, the number on an average was 27 30 in Amami-oshima, 20 15 in Ishigaki-jima and Iriomote-jima. But it varied also in the same island at different seasons. In Amami-oshima it was 29 30 in April, 28 in May, and 20 24 in June. We noticed frequently another owl which uttered "Nye" near the owls singing "Koho". The owls which uttered the call were a little larger than the owls singing "Koho". However, they were not the Collared Scope Owl Otus bakkamoena, because their irises were yellow. The birds which sang "Koho" never uttered the call "Nye", or vice-versa. We think the larger birds were the females of O. s. elegans, since the female is larger than the male in this species (Kiyosu, 1952. The Birds of Japan. Vol. II. Kodansha). Incidentally, another subspecies O. s. interpositus in Minamidaito-jima also has a similar song to that of O. s. elegans. We confirmed it in January 20 16, 1967. The Scops Owl of this island sang 30 times a minute on an average. Sometimes the typical song of the mainland subspecies was heard in some islands in March and April (see Table 1), but thereafter it was not heard. Hence, some individuals of the mainland subspecies seem to migrate northward through these islands. Most of the mainland populations are summer visitors, while the populations of the Ryukyu Islands are resident. Acknowledgement: We are deeply indepted to Dr. Kenjiro OWADA of Tokyo University of Arts and Sciencies for his help in making the soundspectrograms used in this paper, and to Dr. L.H. WALKINSHAW for reading the draft of this paper.

SONGS AND CALLS OF THE SCOPE OWL OTUS SCOPS IN THE RYUKYU ISLANDS