OWLS AND DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 331 
the outer webs of the outer scapulars are buff bordered with 
black ; wing quills brown with paler mottled bands and tips, 
the pale bands becoming white patches on the outer webs of the 
primaries ; tail brcwn mottled and banded with smoke gray or 
tawny ; chin buff or whitish: throat, breast, and remainder of 
lower parts grayish or tawny-buff, more or less marked with 
fine wavy crossbars of brown and with occasional bold 
black-brown shaft-stripes ; legs, vent, and under tail coverts 
generally unmarked. Some birds are grayer, others more 
rufous. 
Bill greenish-horny, darker above ; iris chestnut or reddish 
yellow ; feet brownish-olive or greenish. 
Length 8; wing 5°85; tail 2:6; tarsus 1°25; bill from 
gape ° 8). 
Distribution —The commonest small Owl in the Island, 
most abundant in the west and south, especially near the sea, 
rarer in the north and east. In the lower hills it is found up to 
about 3,000 feet. It occurs all over the Indian Empire and 
Malaya, including the Archipelago. As in the last species, 
there are several distinct local races, raised by some to the 
rank of species. As usual, Ceylon and Scuthern Indian forms 
are the smallest and darkest. 
Habits, &c.—A nocturnal species. occurring largely in 
cultivated country, and even in town gardens. Its mono- 
tonous little “‘ wok, wok” is frequently heard after dark in 
Colombo. The birds go about in pairs. For months a couple 
slept every day side by side in a tall shady thorn bush in my 
compound at Puttalam. It feeds mainly on insects and 
other small fry. The breeding season appears to be about 
February, March, and April. It nests in hollow trees, or in 
the angle between the frond and stem of a palm. A few leaves 
or blades of grass are sometimes placed as a lining, but in the 
only two nests I have found the eggs were laid on the chips of 
rotten wood et the bottom of the hole. In Ceylon two eggs 
appear to be the usual number, occasionally three. They are 
of the usual shape, almost spherical, and not very glossy. 
They soon become stained with yellow. The average of four 
Oeylon eggs is 1+ 24 by 1-09. 
