FURREEDPORE, EASTERN BENGAL. 255 



and flabby ; disc skin, leaden blue ; the bristles paler ; irides grey- 

 ish brown ; bill yellowish horny ; feet dusky. The primary fea- 

 thers were two inches long and of the normal colour. 

 When he died (10th March) his primary feathers were 7 inches 

 in length, and the other small grey feathers had here and there 

 been replaced by earthy brown ones ; beyond this there was no 

 change. When any one would approach him he would shake 

 his head from side to side and snap his mandibles together, the 

 pupil of the eye dilating and contracting all the while. A Kestril 

 was in the same room with him, and he used to be continually 

 bullying it. One day a couple of these Owls were shot by me, 

 and some Hindoo Barbers and Dhobeys living near took the 

 birds from me and ate them ! They pronounced them very fat 

 and delicate eating. 



72.— *Ketupa eeylonensis, Gmel 



2kth January Y818, Male. — Length, 23*0; expanse, 54 f 50; 

 wing, 16*0; tail from vent, 7*08; tarsus, 2'20 ; bill from gape, 

 1*90; bill at front, 1'50 ; closed wings equal end of tail. 

 Irides, yellow. 



The above bird I shot in a clump of mangoe trees on the 

 outskirts of a village. The report of the gun flushed a second 

 bird from a large hollow in the stump of a mangoe tree, and 

 about 9 feet off the ground, and in this hollow 1 found two eggs, 

 one just hatching off which I left ; no lining of any kind to the 

 hole. The villagers told me that every year a pair of this Fish 

 Owl laid in that hole. The egg was pure white and of an oval 

 shape ; it was very hard set. The natives have an idea that some 

 inmate of any house on which this bird sits and calls, is sure to 

 die, and I have known of two instances in which the prediction 

 was verified. The native name of " Bhootoom " is given in 

 imitation of its calj. Very common in the district ; in every 

 village where there happens to be a bit of heavy tree jungle a 

 a pair of these birds are to be found. 



74.— Scops pennatus, Hodgs. 



2nd February 1878, Male. — Length, 7*50 ; expause, 14*50; 

 wing, 5*58 ; tail from vent, 2'58; tarsus, l'O ; bill from gape, 

 0"75 ; bill at front, 0'50 ; closed wings equal end of tail. 

 Irides bright yellow ; feet brownish 3-ellow ; claws horny ; 

 soles of feet, two shades lighter than feet; bill, above black; 

 below, greenish yellow. 



This bird was shot while basking in the sun on one of the 

 lowest brauches of a Casuarina tree just alongside my house at 

 3 p.m. At first I mistook it for the stump of a branch, but on its 



