FIRST LIST OF THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTH KONKAN. 35 



very wild and vicious. One, who was shut up in a cage with a 

 young Syrnium ocellatum, quite as large and nearly as old as 

 itself, killed and ate a large portion of its cage fellow one night. 

 After this exploit I packed it off with other young Owls to the 

 Victoria Gardens at Bombay. 



63.*— Syrnium indranee, Sykes. 



j Fanasgaon. 



I have not found the Brown Wood Owl myself, but I saw a 

 single specimen in Dr. Armstrong's collection, which he had got 

 at Fanasgaon, twenty miles inland from Vijaydurg. 



65.— Syrnium ocellatum, Less. 



I Palgad. 

 I Aroli. 



Not common, but occurs here and there in the northern dis- 

 tricts in mango clumps and well-wooded village homesteads 

 inland. I have not yet seen it on the coast. 



Three nests were found in January with two young birds or 

 two eggs in each, all in hollows of mango trees. The four 

 young birds which I kept for some weeks were, when first taken 

 from the nest, white all over with black pencillings, with no 

 rufous colouring. They were very gentle and good tempered, 

 except with dogs and strangers ; but the wing bones, whether 

 from want of properfoodor not, I cannot say, were exceedingly 

 brittle, and before they were six weeks old each bird had had at 

 least one of its wings fractured or dislocated. Cockroaches, lizards 

 and grasshoppers were their favourite food. Cooked meat they 

 ate, if hungry, but didn't much care for. Notwithstanding their 

 damaged wing bones they were very active, and would climb up 

 tent ropes, using their beaks like parrots. 



69.— Bubo bengalensis, Frankl. 



Kelshi. j Palgad. j 



Ratnagiri. j Dharani. 



Rather common on the rocky hill sides overhanging the tidal 

 creeks. Two nests were found in January, both in fissures be- 

 tween steep boulders on the sides of hills. In one nest there 

 were five, and in one only two young birds. One of the nests faced 

 due east, a fact worth mentioning, as Captain G. F. L. Marshall 

 {vide " Nests and Eggs," page 62) has pointed out that (in 

 Northern India) these birds almost invariably select a cliff facing 

 westward. The young thrive well in confinement, but are deci- 

 dedly bad tempered. 



