1875. ] MR. E. L. LAYARD ON THE BIRDS OF FIJI. 27 
*77, ATHENE RADIATA, Tickell. 
On the 7th February last, I heard the call-note of a pair of these 
little Owlets, about 4 o’clock in the morning, from a tree close to 
my tent. My friend Mr. Russell, who was ready equipped for a 
shooting-excursioa, shot one of them for me; and on the following 
morning the female was also shot, as she alighted on the ground to 
pick up a small black beetle, about an inch long. 
The Jungle-Owlet is far from uncommon in some parts of the 
country ; its call is very peculiar and quite distinct from that of any 
other Owl that I know of. It is a perfect miniature of its hill 
representative 4. cuculoides. 
*81. NiNox SCUTELLATUS, Rafiles. 
Four specimens. A pair, male and female, which I kept alive 
for some time, measured as follows:— dg, length 11}, wing 73; 
2, length 113, wing 8. Although the female is a trifle larger as 
regards linear dimensions, the male certainly looked the more robust 
bird of the two in life. The Hawk-Owl breeds here, as do also the 
three species of Ephialtes ; but I have not as yet succeeded in pro- 
curing their eggs. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE III. 
Fig. 1. Aquila hastata 2 , from a specimen after its first moult, shot at Saharun- 
pore, 21st October, 1874. ‘The figure is one fourth of the natural size. 
2. Aquila hastata, young 2, from a specimen obtained from the nest at 
Saharunpore, 28th August 1873, being the youngest of the three birds 
obtained on the same occasion. This figure is also reduced to one 
fourth of the natural size. 
3. Ornithological Notes from Fiji, with Descriptions of sup- 
posed new Species of Birds. By E. L. Layarp, F.Z.S., 
H.B.M. Consul for Fiji and Tonga. 
[Received December 5, 1874. ] 
Two birds belonging to the genus Ptilotis are described in the 
‘Ornithologie der Viti-, Samoa- und Tonga-Inseln’ of Drs. Finsch 
and Hartlaub. The first, Pétilotis earunculata, is apparently, from 
the number of specimens I have seen, pretty common in the Samoan 
Islands ; the second, P. procerior, I can vouch, from personal ob- 
servation, is common on the island of Ovalau and about Suva, on 
the east coast of Viti Levu. I should have said that it was equally 
common throughout the islands, as wherever I have been (and I have 
visited most of the chief islands) the loud clear whistle of a Ptilotis 
was the first sound that greeted our landing. But on the arrival of 
H.M.S. ‘Challenger’ at Levuka, I was shown the birds that had 
been collected during their short stay at Kandavu, the most southerly 
island of this group. I at once detected a new Ptilotis among them, 
