604 Dr. R. B. Sliarpc on Birds 



21. Scops letti. 



Scops letti Biittik. ; Sharpe, antea, p. 104. 



" None of the four examples of Scops letti had anything 

 but insect-remains in the stomach. Two of them were killed 

 by myself, in each case in the afternoon. The specimen of 

 May 22, 1903, was discovered by school -boys, who were led 

 to it by the chattering of small birds that were trying to 

 drive it away. When I reached the place, a thick bit of 

 forest left along a brook between two clearings, the Owl 

 was seen with difficulty in the dense shade among the 

 branches ; when made out, its erect horns shewed very 

 prominently. The other that I killed was similarly betrayed 

 by little birds, but it was in a more open place in old- 

 cleared land." 



22. Syrnium nuchale. 



Syrnium nuchale Sharpe; id. antea, p. 105; Bates, antea, 

 p. 91. 



No. 352. S juv. Efulen, Jan. 30, 1904. "Akuii." 



No. 441. ? ad. Efulen, April 13, 1904. 



" Some of the examples of Syrnium nuchale that I have 

 skinned have had in their stomachs remnants of large insects 

 — grasshoppers, large cockroaches, and the big black beetles 

 that are found in rotten logs. Two had, besides beetles, the 

 hair and bones of small rodents. The specimen of May 30, 

 1903, was brought to me alive, with its feathers all stuck 

 together with 'stick-tight' burrs, or fruits of a Desmodium that 

 grows on the trodden ground around villages and furnishes 

 a hiding-place for small wild mice. The bird had evidently 

 been pursuing some little mouse (or, it may be, only grass- 

 hoppers) into a patch of these ' stick-tights/ and had got its 

 wings so plastered up with them that it could not spread them 

 to fly, and so had been found and caught by boys, who are 

 themselves accustomed to hunt mice at dusk. In this Owl's 

 stomach were a few of the same burrs that covered its wings, 

 and some feathers that looked like its own ; it seemed to have 

 swallowed some of the burrs and feathers in its efforts to free 

 itself with its beak. But there was nothing else in the 

 stomach, shewing that it had failed to catch its mouse.' 3 



