418 
July, containing four young ones, seemed to have been sparsely 
lined with feathers. 
The eggs are doubtless four in number, nearly round and 
pure white, but I have never yet myself obtained any. 
The following is Capt. Hutton’s account of its nidification : 
“ It laysits eggs in hollow trees without any preparation of a 
nest. On the llth May, 1848, I found three young ones and 
an egg just ready to hatch, in a hole of a wild cherry tree. 
The egg was nearly round and pure white ; but, being broken, I 
could take no measurement ofit. The young ones were clothed 
in a soft and pure white down. ‘The old female remained in 
the hole while we cut into the tree, and allowed herself to be 
captured.” 
Mr. R. Thompson writes, ‘This species breeds from May 
to July, usually in holes, in oak trees. I have usually met 
this bird with three young ones. In September the young are 
quite fledged. The note is a took took, took, took, took, took, 
repeated often. Another cry said to be uttered by this bird 
is the plaintive and melancholy whistle one hears after the 
breaking up of the rainy season, in well-wooded hilly districts, 
somewhat like the following, ¢wee-twee, repeated at intervals, 
and most usually heard at night. This Owlet feeds on young 
birds, mice and cicada. I shot one which had just caught and 
was eating an adult specimen of Zosterops Palpebrosus. Awful 
is the chattering among the many hill tits we have up here, 
when they discover the whereabouts of their small though 
vigorous enemy. His greatest torment is the little Siva Cya- 
nouroptera who, with his incessant chattering, causes him consi- 
derable annoyance. The flight is rapid and vigorous, and the 
bird is quite as active in the day as it is at night.” 
Capt. Hutton writes,—“ The twin whistled note, commonly 
attributed to this bird, is really that of the Seops Owl; like 
yourself I could have declared that I had shot Brodie’, in the 
act of uttering the ‘‘ wheu-whoo”’ note, but in these cases, there 
must have been a Scops Owl at hand, and unobserved, for 
closer attention teaches me that G'. Brodiei has four notes in its 
The quills are brown, with rufous or fulvous white spots on the outer, and 
imperfect white bars on the inner webs (except quite at the tips of the pri- 
maries) towards the margins. The breast on either side of the white stripe, 
and the sides are brown, usually a good deal more rufous than on the upper 
parts, with narrow, transverse, fulvous or rufous white bars. The abdomen, 
vent and flanks, white, mottled, not barred, with amore or less rufous brown, 
the feathers being white with a large blotch on one or both webs towards 
the tips, and not unfrequently, if carefully examined, with a circular white 
spot im the middle of the brown, 
