326 Mr. S. S. Flower on the 



20. EuDYNAMis HONORATA (Linn.). 



I have not yet seen a Koel in the Wang Na, but several 

 times have heard its well-known cry. It is a common bird 

 in the country districts round Bangkok. 



21. Strix flammea Linn, 



The Barn-Owl is very numerous here; one cannot walk 

 out at twilight without noticing one or more either flying 

 silently by or else perched on some old carved pinnacle, 

 looking very picturesque in silhouette against the afterglow. 

 An evening sketch of the Royal Siamese Museum would 

 hardly be complete without having at least one finial sur- 

 mounted by an Owl. In our house these Owls are a decided 

 nuisance ; night after night they will come into the rooms 

 and perch on the punkahs and furniture. I have several 

 times, on awaking, found an Owl perched on the frame of 

 my bed. Besides being dirty_, they are a source of possible 

 clanger from fire, and some evenings we have had to ex- 

 tinguish the paraffin-lamp, as an Owl would make repeated 

 dashes at the light and might at any moment overturn it. 

 In London it is difficult to imagine this sort of thing, and 

 other results of the animals that share one's rooms here; for 

 instance, having to put the pictures straight which the long 

 geckoes running on the walls have pushed askew. When 

 an Owl happens to be abroad during the day it has a very 

 bad reception from the Crows. We have observed this several 

 times. One afternoon in April a Barn-Owl flew across the 

 compound, pursued by four Crows ; it flew into our house 

 with such force that it killed itself by dashing against the 

 opposite wall. 



22. ScoPs bakkam^na (Pennant). 



The Collared Scops-Owl also lives in our garden, and 

 sometimes comes into the house in the evening. They are 

 pretty little birds, and we have generally seen two together, 

 sitting close side by side, on the branch of a tree. They 

 make a noise like very loud snoring, and an incident that 

 came to ray notice illustrates how much it sounds like the 



