568 
The birds make no nest, but merely scoop a small hollow in 
the earth, in which to deposit the eggs. Occasionally, they will 
lay on the level ground under some over-hanging bush or tuft 
of grass, but almost without exception, they choose some little 
eave or recess in, or projecting ledge or shelf of, some rocky or 
earthy cliff in the neighbourhood of water. The precipitous 
banks of canals and rivers, are perhaps their favorite brooding- 
places, and as my friend, Capt. G. F. L. Marshall, first pointed 
out to me, they (in northern India) almost invariably select a 
cliff face looking westward. 
The normal number of the eggs is perhaps four; but I have 
often found three and, more than once, only two eggs much 
incubated. 
The eggs of this species appear, comparatively speaking, very 
uniform in size and shape. Very perfect broad ovals, white with 
a faint creamy tinge, they are, but for a slight superior glossiness, 
scarcely distinguishable from those of B. Ocellata. In texture, 
they are finer than the eggs of A. Coromanda, and for the size of 
the bird, seem to me decidedly small. I note that I can scarcely 
believe that the egg figured by Bree as that of A. Savignyt 
really belongs to that nearly allied species. The egg being 
barely two-thirds the size of the smallest A. Bengalensis I have 
yet seen. 
The eggs of the Indian species, vary from 2°05 to 2°20 in 
length, and from 1°65 to 1°8 in breadth, but the average of ten 
egos measured is 2°10 by 1:73. The egg figured by Bree is 
only 1:54 by 1°34. 
This species is very common in the Saharunpoor district, 
especially towards the North, and from thence Mr. G. Marshall 
sent me the following account of its nidification.—‘‘ The Rock 
Horned Owl breeds from December to April, the middle of March 
being the best time for searching for its eggs. On one occasion 
only, I found the eggs on the level ground, on a plain, at the 
broadly but irregularly margined with slightly rufous or buffy white, and a 
few of those near the carpal joint, with ill-defined, brownish, sub-terminal spots, 
The lesser lower coverts, with faint, narrow, wavy, transverse, brown or rufous 
brown bars. The breast, abdomen, sides, flanks and lower tail coverts are a rich 
rufous buff, with very numerous, narrow, transverse, wavy, brown bars, darkest 
and closest on the sides and feeblest and widest apart on the lower tail coverts, 
and almost wanting in the immediate vieinity of the vent. The feathers of 
the upper breast adjoining the base of the neck, with conspicuous very dark 
brown (in some almost black) central stripes. The thigh coverts the same 
hue as the rest of the lower part of body, but altogether unspotted and 
unbaxred. The tarsi and toe feathers, buffy white, also unspotted and 
unbarred. 
