i 



544 The Roller-like Birds 



two in number, pure white, and of a long, oval shape. Both sexes assist in incu- 

 bation, and the young are covered with a white down, but they soon attain adult 

 plumage. The largest species is the Papuan Frogmouth (P. papuensis] of the 

 Papuan Islands and northern Australia, which attains a length of twenty-one 

 inches, and the smallest is the Marbled Frogmouth (P. ocellatus), also of the 

 Papuan Islands, which is only thirteen inches long. 



Eared Frogmouths. Distinguished by their smaller size and rounded tail- 

 feathers are the Eared Frogmouths (Batrachostomus] , of which a dozen species 

 are known, extending from the eastern Himalayas to the Malay Peninsula, the 

 Philippines, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. They take their common name from 

 the fact that the head in some species is adorned with ear-tufts of bristly plumes. 

 The plumage is in general similar to that of the other Frogmouths, but in the 

 matter of nest building they depart widely from them, making, according to 

 Mr. Ernst Hartert, a "soft pad, formed of down, taken from the powder-downs 

 of the bird itself, and then completed by having the outside interwoven and 

 covered with bits of bark and lichen, so that the nest entirely resembles the branch 

 to which it is attached." The nest of the Sikhim Frogmouth (B. hodgsoni) is 

 briefly described by Hodgson as nearly flat and a mass of lichen and moss over- 

 laid with a soft downy vegetable substance blended into a felt-like mass, but he 

 may have been misled as to the nature of the substance. The eggs are pure 

 white and one or two in number. But relatively little is known of the habits of 

 these birds. 



Owlet Frogmouths. The curious little Owlet Frogmouths (jEgotheles] , to 

 the number of a dozen or more species, are the only representatives of the second 

 of the above-mentioned subfamilies. In addition to the characters pointed 

 out it may be mentioned that they are without powder-downs and have nesting 

 habits differing from those of either of the other genera. They are small birds, 

 from seven to twelve inches long, mainly found in New Guinea, with a single 

 species each in the Molucca Islands, Australia, and New Caledonia. Compara- 

 tively little has been recorded regarding their habits, perhaps the best-known 

 being the Australian Owlet Frogmouth (;E. novcB-hollandia), which is about 

 eight and a half inches in length, dusky vermiculated and barred with pale 

 gray above, the top of the head deep brown with two longitudinal stripes and 

 two crescents on the hinder portion whitish, and the tail with twelve or more 

 whitish gray bars and the lower parts whitish, vermiculated with dusky. It is 

 distributed quite as generally as the Tawny-shouldered Frogmouth, frequenting 

 the densest brushes near the coast and the more thinly wooded districts of the 

 interior. Gould states that during the day this bird resorts to the hollow branches 

 and holes of gum trees, sallying forth as night approaches in quest of insects, 

 principally small beetles. Its flight is straight and not characterized by the 

 sudden turns and descents of the ordinary Goatsucker. "On driving it from 

 its haunts," he says, "I have sometimes observed it to fly direct to a similar hole 

 in another tree, but more frequently to alight on a neighboring branch, perching 

 across and never parallel to it. When assailed in its retreat it emits a loud 

 hissing noise, and has the same stooping motion of the head observable in the 



