406 
hole, or rather spot to build in, on the top of the central wall 
of a gable roof, just under the main longitudinal beam. ‘Two 
of these Owlets came and determined to breed there, and after a 
couple of days’ fighting and screeching, &c., the Owls took pos- 
session of the Rollers’ comfortable nest and there laid. The 
Rollers went round the corner of the same house, chose a new 
hole, built a new nest and bred there. Generally when met 
with out of holes in trees, their nests are more substantial, than 
when in the latter, and in such cases, I suspect the nests are 
more often theirs by right of conquest than by construction. 
They lay four or five eggs: most commonly the former. All 
are when blown a beautifully pure white, but until blown, have, 
when quite fresh, a beautiful pink tinge, and when a good deal 
incubated, are an opaque marble white. Most of them are of a 
close, uniform, satiny texture, but a good many are thickly 
covered in part or whole with minute pimples, if I may use the 
‘word, white, but owing to the shell there being thicker, of a 
rather deader white than the ground. 
Typically the eggs of Athene Brama are oval. In some cases 
broad and approaching the normal Owl shape, but more com- 
monly a moderately broad oval, differing little in colour, size 
and texture from those of some of our green pigeons, and some 
of the smaller specimens are positively undistinguishable from 
large eges of Zurtur Risoria, The largest specimen I have 
seen is smaller than the eggs of Noctua Tegmalmi figured by 
Hewitson and as above remarked much less spherical. Out of 
some hundreds, I have only one specimen nearly as spherical 
as his figure. 
The eggs vary from 1°15 to 1:45 in length and from 0-93 to 
; ‘lin breadth, but the average of 54 eggs measured was 1°25 
y 1:04. 
Mr. W. Blewitt writes, “I took four nests of this bird be- 
tween the 16th and 2ist March. Two contained three and two 
four eggs, one set of the latter only being at all incubated. The 
nests were in decayed hollows of Sheeshum, Jamun (HLugenium 
Jambolanum) and Neem trees, the eggs were in each case more 
or less bedded in dry leaves, or feathers, or both.” On another 
occasion he wrote, “I found several nests of this species near 
Hansie in the latter half of April. ‘They were in holes of 
Peepul and Siriss trees, and each contained three eggs laid 
upon a few blades of straw with a few dry leaves or feathers..” 
This is a very bold little bird, and always issues from its 
diurnal roosting-place long before dusk. It is one of the birds 
which really seem to think that Telegraph wires were erected for 
their sole and especial benefit, and the numbers that one some- 
