254 BOMBAY DUCKS 



I noticed that Colonel Cunningham states that the 

 spotted owlet is noisy only at nightfall and dawn. 

 " During the course of the night," he writes, " they are 

 usually very silent." This statement is doubtless true 

 of the Calcutta owlets, which are possibly somewhat 

 subdued and overawed by the vice-regal presence. The 

 spotted owlet of the United Provinces is not thus kept 

 in order, it behaves most riotously the whole night. I 

 do not go so far as to assert that the histrionic per- 

 formances of every bird continue unceasingly through- 

 out the night ; all I say is that the incantations never 

 cease. If it is not one bird that originates them, then 

 it is another. 



The goings-on of this owlet in Northern India are 

 thus described by Mr. W. Jesse : " It keeps up a 

 succession of street fights ; and its squabblings and 

 screechings are worse than a whole parish of cats 

 collected in one back area." The owls in our banyan 

 tree became such a nuisance that a court was held, and 

 the birds were condemned to death. One holiday was 

 devoted to an archery meeting. The result of this was 

 that the whole family of jungle owlets suddenly de- 

 parted unto their fathers. We, like the murderer of 

 poor cock robin, had killed them with our bow and 

 arrow. After that, our nights were comparatively 

 peaceful. Our sleep was then disturbed only by such 

 trifles as distant owlets, pariah dogs, jackals, brain- 

 fever birds, and dust storms. 



I was next sent to the hills, where the spotted owlets 

 ceased from troubling. Athene brama is scattered all 

 over India, and, indeed, over most parts of Southern 



