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unbarred legs, and six-inch wing, characteristic, according to 
him, of that species. 
The eggs are very round, considerably larger than those of 
Athene Brahma, and than the egg of this species already de- 
scribed. They are fairly glossy and, of course, pure white, 
and only vary from 1°32 to 1°36 in length, and from 1:15 to 
1:18 in breadth. 
As | have pointed out in the description, the absence of bars 
on the tarsi, although the rw/e in this species, is by no means 
an invariable characteristic. The female which I captured on 
the egg has the tarsi barred. Of a pair which I caught at 
Bareilly in May in a hole, with three half grown young ones, 
one had the tarsi barred, while in the other they were pure 
white and absolutely spotless. Judging from my notes, at 
least one in every six specimens has the tarsi more or less 
clearly barred, and at least two more out of the six, exhibit 
traces of the same. I have not been able to satisfy myself, 
whether these differences are accidental, or depend upon age or 
seX. 
This species is widely distributed in India, and though rarely 
seen is really by no means uncommon. Jerdon gives it from 
the Eastern Ghats, whence I also have received a specimen, 
and I have before me now specimens from Saugor, Jhansee, 
Htawah, Bareilly, a low valley near Almora, Dehli, Lansie, 
and Mount Aboo, all of which though varying s/ightly in size 
and colour, are manifestly one species, and clearly distinct from 
the five other species that I have separately noticed. 
All the specimens that I have hitherto examined in the flesh, 
had fed exclusively on beetles, crickets and the like. 
This species (and very possibly all the other Hphialtes, but 
this is the only one that I have had opportunities of watching 
closely), is entirely nocturnal in its habits, and except when 
disturbed from some hiding-place, will never be seen abroad, so 
long as there is the least bit of daylight about. During the 
day, they roost in holes of trees, or, where the foliage is very 
dense and the branches very close, on some leaf embowered 
branch A pair that I used to watch at Bareilly, roosted in a 
dense clump of young Sakoo trees ((Shorea Robusla) which 
grow in the public gardens. They always sat in the same 
places, about three feet apart. At night, long after Afhene 
Brahma was chattering angrily every where, and perching out 
openly on bare boughs and telegraph wires and posts, long 
atter the two horned Eagle Owls (Ascalaphia Bengalensis and 
Coromanda) were about, and Bulaca Ocelata was busy trying to 
awake the echoes (there did not happen to fe any there to 
