OWLS. 33 



husband and fond father. Rarely will you see him 

 twenty yards from his spouse. If she flies across the 

 garden to another tree, he waits a few seconds, then 

 flies across too and sits by her side. And never will 

 you see a third in the party, except it be their own olive 

 branches, of which there may be four. These appear 

 about April, and are the drollest little beings im- 

 aginable. They all live happily together in a hole 

 in some old tree, and if you tap the tree at any 

 hour of the day, a puzzled, round face will appear 

 at the hole and ask more plainly than in words what 

 you want. Then the owner of the face will dart out and 

 sit on a branch and begin bowing to you with sarcastic 

 effect. A hole in the roof of the house, or anywhere 

 else, will do as well as one in a tree, if it is roomy 

 and comfortable. The Owlet is very promiscuous in 

 its diet. I have seen it hawking flying ants from its 

 perch on a telegraph wire, darting out after them and 

 catching them in its feet, and if a mouse or a lizzard 

 goes by, it will treat that in the same way. Mr. 

 Steuart Baker says that it kills little bats, not catching 

 them on the wing, but pulling them out of their 

 hiding places. 



Besides these two species it is not unlikely that the 

 great, horned, Fish Owl (Ketupa Ceylonensis) may be 

 seen in Bombay about such places as Worlee or 

 Sion, but I have never met with it. It is called the 

 Fish Owl because it is generally found near water and 

 is supposed to feed principally on fish and frogs and 

 crabs, but I have seen one stoop on a hare. It had 

 actually clutched the hare when my appearance divert- 

 ed it. It has a ghostly hoot, a hoo, hoo-hoo, far-reach- 

 ing but coming from nowhere in particular. When it 

 5 



