ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM COCOAWATTE ESTATE. 287 



given to as my live Glancidimn castanonotum. Pieces of food too 

 ]arge to bolt they hold up in one foot exactly like a parrot. As 

 Colonel Legge says that, as a rule, owls do not utter their natural calls 

 while in confinement, it may be worth mentioning that this species 

 does so. My pair keep up the " hoom-oh-hoom ! " all night, and a 

 wild outsider frequently visits the trees near their cage and joins in I 



12. Scops bakkamuna, Forster, Forster's Scops Owl. — Fairly com- 

 mon. I hear its ** wok -wok ■" every night, but do not see much of the 

 bird, which seems strictly nocturnal. On May 25th I found a nestling 

 unable to fly in the tea quite close to my bungalow. Where he was 

 hatched I could not make out, as I could find no likely hole in any 

 of the neighbouring trees. I kept the chick for about three weeks, 

 and he seemed to be doing well, but one morning I found him dead. 

 Its call note was different from that of the old birds — a low 

 " ook-ook." 



13. Ninox scutulata. Raffles, the Brown Hawk Owl. — Common at 

 2,000 feet; much more so down at Madigama. My collecting coolie 

 shot a male in April, and at the shot a second bird flew out from a 

 hole in the same tree. The hole was empty, but as the testes of the 

 male bird were much enlarged, I suppose they would have laid in it 

 shortly. I have always found this bird very shy. After quitting its 

 place of concealment during the day, it strikes oE on a foraging expe- 

 dition, taking exactly the same line night after night, and stopping 

 to utter its " coo-whoop " on the same trees. 



14. Glaucidium castanonotum, Blyth, the Chestnut-backed Owl. — 

 Common. Extremely diurnal in its habits, uttering its queer little hoot 

 of '* kraw " all through the day. I believe it feeds during the day too, 

 as I once shot one at 11 a.m., which had, I am almost certain, a mouse 

 in its claws. However, it dropped the object in fluttering down through 

 the jungle, and I could not find it to make sure. Previously I thought 

 it lived entirely on insects. But one which I have alive eats birds in 

 such a business-like way (carefully plucking out the wing and tail 

 feathers and then beginning with the brain) that I fancy they must 

 form a regular part of its food. My bird was first pinioned by a shot, 

 and the plucky little fellow was eating meat from my fingers three 

 hours afterwards, and shutting his eyes and bending his head down 

 with apparent pleasure when I scratched it. When alarmed it throws 



