232 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. Xl. 



it is almost impossible to see one, although the would-be observer may- 

 know it to be in a certain part of the tree. Occasionally, however, it 

 may be seen seated on the top of some small dead tree in the forest ; 

 its shoulders humped up and feathers puffed out looking like a queer 

 excrescence at the end of the bough until it shows itself to be some- 

 thing alive by twisting its head about. When thus seated, it is 

 very easy of approach and does not fly away, even though the 

 person approaching does not do so at all quietly, most likely owing 

 to the daylight interfering with its sight. Under no circumstances, 

 though, is it at all shy, and in the early morning I have several 

 times wandered round and round some big tree talking to my 

 attendant who with me was attempting to discover the whereabouts 

 of a bird, we have seen fly into it, whistling to and being regularly- 

 replied to by the owl. 



Its food consists principally of insects, and I once saw one 

 hanging head downwards from a branch, working away at the loose 

 pieces of bark and evidently extracting insects of some kind, though 

 what they were I did not find out, as, though I shot at and dropped 

 the bird, I failed to find it in the dense scrub and grass into 

 which it fell. 



Besides insects it devours mice, small rats and many birds, more 

 especially young ones from the nest. Davidson saw it in the act of 

 devouring a young Barbet, and I have seen unmistakable remnants of 

 various kinds of birds in the nest holes. This owl also must sometimes 

 eat carrion, for I once found the fur of a bamboo rat in the pellets 

 thrown up by one, and it seems incredible that so small a bird should be 

 able to overpower so large and powerful an animal, and one is therefore 

 forced to the conclusion that the bird finding the rat dead made a meal 

 of it. That it has great pluck is shewn by the size of the birds it kills 

 and eats. I have seen feathers from the Blue-eared Barbet {Cyanopis 

 mjanotis)) the Coral-billed Scimitar Babbler (Pomatorhinus phayrii), 

 Hypsipetes psaroides, and other birds as large, amongst the articles 

 with which the bottom of their nest-holes are strewn. 



It seems quite impartial as to the elevation at which it breeds or 

 stays all the year round, and I have found it from the level of the plains 

 up to the summits of the highest peaks, though, perhaps, it is less 

 common above 4,000 feet than at and below that height. 



