COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



emerging gravely from beneath the overarching 

 fronds and then sailing off through the dusk on 

 its nightly rounds. 



Indian barn-owls, like their European relatives, 

 are very intolerant of light, and therefore are 

 later in coming out for the night than the spotted 

 owlets ; for the same reason, when disturbed during 

 daylight from their lurking-places, they are help- 

 less and bewildered victims of the mobs of small 

 birds who at once set upon them. When they 

 have once made up their minds that a shady 

 verandah or other quiet nook about a house affords 

 desirable quarters for the day, they become very 

 familiar, and it is often no easy matter to 

 dislodge them, though this sometimes has to be 

 done in order to pacify the minds of the native 

 servants, who have as great an objection to the 

 presence of an owl about a house as their English 

 compeers have to that of a robin, on the theory 

 that it is of evil omen. This prejudice is so deeply 

 rooted that it is hard to protect any stray owl, 

 who may have lingered abroad too long in the 

 morning, and been driven to take refuge in a 

 verandah, from being at once turned out instead 

 of being left in peace until the succeeding evening. 

 Many years ago, when some of us started a 

 chummery in a house in the suburbs that had 

 stood empty for some time, we found a barn-owl 

 already in possession. He had established his 



