THE BIRDS OF NORTH C A CHAR. 22$ 



and gradually dropping and dying away. It is a melancholy sound, 

 but by no means either unmusical or unpleasant. This cry has been 

 attributed by various writers to G. radiatum, G. hrodei^ or some other 

 owlets, but I am absolutely certain that it is the common note of the 

 barred owlet, though I cannot be as sure that it is not also uttered by 

 any other owl. It has also a note sounding something like ku-u-hoot; 

 it is very low and deep and could not I think be heard a hundred 

 yards distant from where the bird is sitting. This species seems to 

 live very largely on field mice and small rats, most of the birds I have 

 examined containing remains of such inside them. They also devour 

 a good many insects and small lizards, worms and frogs. I saw one, 

 once, when some grass jungle was on fire, catch a large toad wbich was 

 hastening away from the danger across a path. I believe that, unlike 

 most of the owlets, this one does not always take his prey to a tree or 

 similar perch before eating it, but commences and very frequently 

 finishes his meal on the ground at the place where caught. 



It seems to be less affected by daylight than any other owl except 

 - Ketupa, and though not as lively or active in the daytime as in" the 

 dusk, it may very often be seen during broad daylight in shady forest 

 either perched on some bare or dead tree or flying from one place to 

 another, seldom keeping so exclusively to trees with dense foliage as 

 do the others of its race. On one occasion I saw two of these birds 

 feeding on a rat on the ground in the middle of a large jhum (rice 

 clearing) when it was fully 9-30 a.m. When I got to within some sixty 

 yards they flew into a dead tree stump and did not take to the forest 

 until I got within about thirty paces of them. 



It is not at all a shy bird and allows of a very clo3e approach, taking 

 but little notice of it ; nor is this merely due to its faculties being con- 

 fused by daylight, for I have noticed that it is quite as confiding in the 

 dusk of the evening. I have often seen it taking white ants on the 

 wing, and, when thus employed, its feet seem to be the main, if not the 

 sole, instrument in catching the insects which are then conveyed to the 

 mouth by the same action that everyone has seen performed by a kite 

 when engaged in the like pursuit. They seem to content themselves 

 with catching one or two white ants, or at the outside three, each 

 sally, then returning to rest for a few minutes on any convenient 

 perch. 



