108 BTJBONID^E. 



On his ascending the tree a female of the above species flew out, 

 which I shot. In ten minutes he brought me down three round 

 white glossless eggs perfectly fresh, which he said were laid on the 

 bare wood in a natural hollow in the branch. The hole was about 

 three feet from the base of the branch on the underside, and about 

 fifteen to twenty feet above the ground. 



" I found a second nest in the hollow of a dead thingan-tree 

 (Hopea odorata) near the bank of the Mekhnay stream, a feeder of 

 the Meplay, on the 30th of the same month. The eggs, four in 

 number, were similar, and like the others laid on the wood with 

 no pretence to a nest. The seven eggs taken vary from 1'15 to 

 1-29 in length, and 1-07 to 1-12 in breadth." 



The eggs of all these Scops-Owls are alike. Major Bingham 

 has sent me a sqries of the eggs of this species. They are very 

 broad ovals, some almost spherical, pure white, the shell very smooth 

 and soft to the touch, but, though some of the eggs were quite 

 fresh, with in no case more than a very faint gloss. 



Carine brama (Temm.). The Spotted Owlet. 



Athene brama ( Temm.}, Jerd. JB. Ind. i, p. 141 ; Hume, Rouc/h Draft 

 N. fy E. no. 76. 



The Spotted Owlet breeds in February, March, and April ; but 

 the great majority of the birds lay in March. 



Holes in old trees (scantily lined with a few dry leaves and 

 feathers, decayed wood, or a little grass) are their favourite laying 

 places ; but holes in old buildings and clefts in rocks are some- 

 times resorted to. I remember Mr. Brooks telling me that in his 

 office at Etawah two Rollers (C. indica) had chosen a 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 possession 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 con- 

 quest than by construction. 



Mr. "W. Blewitt writes : " I took four nests of this bird be- 

 tween the 16th and 21st 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 sheeshun, jamun (Eugenium jam- 

 holanum), 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 siris 

 trees, and each contained three eggs laid upon a few blades of straw 

 with a few dry leaves or feathers." 



