340 Mr. E. Newton's Second J isit to Madagascar. 



rock. As I was remounting the ledge to get to the naiTOw 

 path I had come by (for I had gone down the slope about fifteen 

 feet to get to the nest), I saw another Owl sitting on a nest 

 exactly similar, and as the bird flew away knocked her down 

 with a stick, and took the eggs also, four in number. It 

 was about half-past three in the afternoon. I also disturbed 

 several others, but could not get at their nests, =^ 'f= * The 

 Owls appear to roost all over the face of the precipice, at least a 

 mile in length, on the western side of the capital, and go out at 

 nightfall, cruising about the rock and over the town for a quar- 

 ter of an hour. After that time they always flew straight away 

 to the low country and rice-groands to the west."' The eggs 

 measure fi'om 1"82 inch to 1*78 inch in length, by 1'31 inch and 

 1'3 inch in breadth, and are, of course, white. 



9. CoprimuJgus madagascariensis, Sganzin. 

 '•' Tar-taro."' 



Common on the coast. I\Ir. Maule killed one on a narrow 

 spit of sand close to the mouth of the Hivondi'ona river, where 

 there was not a blade of grass or covert of any sort within a 

 hundred yards. At Fenerive, on the 18th of September, I shot 

 a Xisht-jar off her eggs, which are in long diameter T08 inch, 

 transverse diameter '^'2 inch, and of the same character as those 

 of C. europ(Bus, but rather darker in colour. The situation where 

 I found them, too, was such as would be chosen by the latter 

 bird. 



10. Ct/pselus ambrosiacus (Gmelin). 



Nearly everywhere on the coast I found this species tolerably 

 common ; the specimen preser\"ed was killed at Soamandi'ikazay, 

 on the 23rd of September. 



11. Phedina ? sp. indet. 



I saw examples of this genus at the village of Hivondrona, and 

 again higher up near Ampasimaventy, but on neither occasion 

 did thev appear to me to be Phedina borbonica *. 



* I may here mention, with reference to my remark I'Ibis, 1862, p. 270, 

 nofff), that the hurricane of 1861 has not entirely exterminated this species 



