208 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



to my bedroom late at night 1 found it already 

 tenanted by an owlet who could by no means be 

 induced to take himself off, although all the doors 

 and windows were widely open, and he received very 

 distinct indications that his absence was desired. 

 He was not in the least flurried, and indeed made 

 it very plain that he regarded me as the real intruder, 

 only responding to my attempts to drive him out by 

 flying from one perch to another on the tops of the 

 doors, window-sashes, and frame of the mosquito- 

 net, and thence making insulting and terrifying 

 gestures at me. So fully determined was he to 

 remain, that at length I was fain to go to bed, 

 leaving him in peaceable possession to stay as long 

 as he liked. Whilst hawking after moths they 

 sometimes hover in a curious way, and they will 

 often come to the ground and hunt about over the 

 grass, squabbling and chattering in competition over 

 specially desirable articles of food. Their flight in 

 passing from one hunting-ground to another is of 

 a very distinctive and curiously undulating character, 

 in which flapping strokes in quick succession alternate 

 with leaping swoops on widely spread, rounded 

 wings. They are very awkward in their attempts 

 at alighting on slender branches ; clutching at them, 

 fluttering their wings, and often falling back to hang 

 struggling for some time before they can regain the 

 erect position. 



Both the common European scops-owl, Scops gin. 



