OWLS 211 



Every one who has been in the way of sleeping 

 in a verandah during the greater part of the year, 

 and of taking the chances of the nocturnal tempera- 

 ture there rather than trusting to the capricious and 

 fitful attentions of a pankhawala, must know the 

 sensation of being suddenly aroused by a loud and 

 doleful shriek, that leaves one for a time uncertain 

 whether it be part of a dream or of objective 

 origin. If, however, one be used to the sounds 

 of an Indian night it does not take long to realise 

 that it was the cry of a common screech- or 

 barn-owl, Strix flammea, as he passed by in the 

 course of his nightly wanderings. They are very 

 abundant in the town and suburbs of Calcutta, 

 those of them who spend the day within urban 

 limits usually taking up their quarters in buildings, 

 in the broad cornices in the interior of verandahs, 

 in quiet nooks under the wooden sun-shades over- 

 hanging windows, in church-towers, and in ruinous 

 or deserted houses. Those that inhabit the suburbs 

 sometimes act alike, but generally prefer the shelter 

 afforded by dense masses of vegetation, such as 

 those provided by thick clumps of canes or 

 rampant growths of creepers. Quite a large colony 

 of them used to occupy the great tufts of Nipa 

 that fringed the island in the large pond close to 

 the superintendent's house in the Botanic Garden ; 

 and it was always interesting to watch them coming 

 out in the evening; one great bird after another 



