76— SURNIINAE. 
most favorite to nesting places, and they may often be seen peep- 
ing out of holes in trees during the daytime, but holes in walls 
are not neglected. 
If they can effect an entrance beneath the tiles of a bunga- 
low, they doso, and there they will rear their families ; in such 
cases (by no means uncommon) they become an almost 
intolerable nuisance, as they are such noisy disagreeable birds ;: 
they are familiar and not easily driven away when once they 
have made.a lodgment, the only sure method is extermination ; 
nothing less seems to have any effect; if one of a pair be shot 
the survivor obtains another mate ina very short time. I have 
found the eggs in holes in hay stacks, and very frequently in 
holesin the sides of wells. They do not make an elaborate 
nest, a few dead leaves and feathers quite sufficing for their 
requirements. The eggs, four or five in number, are frequently 
found in different stages of incubation, owing to the bird com- 
mencing to sit as soon as the first egg is laid. Another curious 
fact in connection with this bird is, that three or four adults 
are occasionally found sitting on one clutch of eggs. 
The eggs are white in color, broad ovals in shape, and average 
1°25 inches in length, by about one inch in breadth. 
Genus, Glaucidium, Bove. 
Nostrilsin the middle of a swollen cere, prolonged and 
tubular; wing short, first quill shorter than the next four, 
emarginate, fourth and fifth quills about equal; tarsus and 
toes well developed ; plumage distinctly banded. 
Glaucidium radiatum, Tick. 
77.—Athene radiata, Tickell—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. 
I, p. 143; Butler, Mount Aboo; Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 
450; Hume’s Scrap Book, p. 409. 
THE JUNGLE OWLET. 
Length, 8 to 85; expanse, 175 to 21; wing, 5; tail, 26 to 
2°9 ; tarsus, 0°92; bill from gape, 0-7. 
Bill yellowish-horny ; irides bright yellow ; feet yellow. . 
Above brown, uniformly barred with close rays of rufescent 
whitish and dusky; wings more rufous, especially the primaries, 
and barred with dusky brown; some of the greater-coverts 
and scapulars with white spots; beneath, throat white, the rest 
of the body barred transversely with dusky and whitish ; 
under tail-coverts white. 
Within our limits, the Jungle Owlet, has only been recorded 
from Mount Aboo, where it breeds during April and May. 
Glaucidium malabaricum, Bly. 
78.—Athene malabarica, Blyth—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. 
I, p. 144; Butler, Deccan; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 3877; 
Hume’s Scrap Book, p. 413. 
