Mr. E. Newton^s Second Visit to Madagascar. 339 



8. Strix flammea, Linnaeus. 



'' Vorondolo." 



By no means uncommon in the neighbourhood of Soamandri- 

 kazay. At dusk one was generally to be seen flying round the 

 buildings of the cane-mill, or to be heard snoring, if it was too 

 dark to see it. One moonlight night I saw three, but I was 

 never fortunate enough to shoot one there. However, one very 

 hot afternoon, the 24th of September, we were proceeding up a 

 narrow tributary of the Hivondrona, when one of our men cried 

 out " Vorondolo ! " and, to our astonishment, w^e saw a White 

 Owl sitting in the full glare of the sun on a branch of a species 

 of Acacia, then totally devoid of leaves, and Mr. Maule shot it. 

 It had the iris black, beak whitish, legs brown. I cannot detect 

 any difference between this bird and those brought from Anta- 

 nanarivo by Mr. Caldwell, to whom I am indebted for the fol- 

 lowing interesting account of this bird at the capital, where it 

 appears much commoner than I was last year inclined to believe 

 (Ibis, 1862, p. 269). Mr. Caldwell had ample opportunities 

 of observing it, having remained there upwards of two months. 

 He writes as follows : — " The OwPs eggs (five in number) were 

 brought to my house at Antananarivo for sale, in consequence 

 of my having promised a reward for them. I then offered the 

 man another dollar on condition of his bringing me in person 

 to the nest he found, that I might see it with my own eyes. In 

 a couple of days he returned, took me to the rock over which 

 the Christians were formerly thrown, and led me along a ledge, 

 when I was obliged to take off my shoes and stockings for fear 

 of slipping. The face of the rock, when not precipitous, is 

 covered with the prickly pear and scanty coarse grass. It 

 was on this ledge that I got the second nest. The bird was 

 sitting when I came up, and there were four eggs. The nest 

 was on the rock, under a prickly pear ; and the eggs barely sepa- 

 rated from the rock by a little of the coarse grass which grew 

 there. In fact, there appeared to be no attempt made to take 

 any trouble in forming it. It was not in the dark, the opening 

 or passage looking to the north-west, and the whole rather ex- 

 posed than otherwise to the hot sun, which was powerful enough 

 to make it very unpleasant to walk bare-footed over the granite 



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