LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 333 



by the pair were, evidently, their amorous calls, and doubtless 

 sounded to them as sweet music, — chacun a son gout. 



The natives consider the sharp, regular, monotonous notes 

 of the Grey Scop Owl, (E. griseus, Jerdon), prolonged for 

 several consecutive hours with only very short intervals, and 

 •well described by Mr. Hume in Rough Notes, (p. 402), to por- 

 tend certain death to some one of the inmates of the house near 

 which they are heard, and as coincidences are not altogether 

 rare, I have known the prediction to be verified more than 

 once. This bird I have also shot while repeating its never- 

 varying echoing sounds, though not without considerable 

 difficulty, as the small size of the bird allowed of its bein* 

 easily screened by the foliage of the tree on which it perched, 

 and a random flying shot fired low in a dark night is usually 

 both dangerous and unsuccessful. 



En passant, that the cry of the Owl bodes death was an erro- 

 neous idea entertained in England in the time of Shakespeai'e, 

 for the Bard thus alludes to it in his famous tragedy of Julius 

 Caesar ; Cassa, one of Brutus's confederates, in enumerating 

 the strange occurrences that preceded Caesar's death, (Act I, 

 Scene III), says : — 



1" the bird of night did sit 



" Even at noon-day upon the market place, 

 " Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies 

 " Do so conjointly meet, let men not say, 

 " These are their reasons, they are natural ; 

 " For, I believe, they are portentous things 

 " Unto the climate they point upon.' ; 



I may add, that both the Owls here mentioned are to be 

 found in Ceylon ; the Indian Screech Owl is well known 

 throughout India, Burmah, Ceylon, and probably Indo-Chinese 

 sub-region, apud Blyth; and the Grey Scop Owl is included 

 among the Ceylonese birds by Mr. Hume, under the synonym 

 of E. bakhamuna, Forst, vide Stray Feathers, Vol. I, p. 432.-— 

 H. James Rainey. 



Khulna, Jessor, Lower Bengal, Jidy 11th, 1874. 



[A correspondent, who neither signs nor dates his letter, writes 

 about Rhynehops albicollis. Anonymous contributions cannot 

 be published' — JEd.] 



