57 



been shot at this spot, which was found to be a female with eggs in- 

 side. The nest was not observed until after the shot was fired. At 

 the second visit on the 28th of May, there were two eggs in the 

 nest, and again a bird was shot, which turned out to be a new female 

 with a fully-formed egg inside, through which the bullet had passed. 

 The skin is now in England. The birds seemed on both occasions 

 remarkably fearless. 



The eggs are smoother, and, as might be expected, considerably 

 smaller than those of the Eagle Owl. The dimensions of the two 

 in the last-mentioned nest are 2 in. x 1*6 in. and 2*1 in. x 1 "65 in. 



At the meeting of Scandinavian naturalists in Christiania last sum- 

 mer, before I heard of these two nests having been found, I was able 

 to announce that the Lap Owl generally makes its nest on the top of 

 a stump. I had received several reliable accounts from different 

 woodsmen, but had never found a nest myself, or been able to get 

 the eggs, which indeed have, I believe, hitherto been unknown to 

 ornithologists. It appears that three is the ordinary number of eggs, 



Tengmalm's Owl. Strix TengmaJmi, Gmel., 



lays its eggs in holes of trees and occasionally in egg-boxes. When 

 once established it cannot easily be made to leave its quarters, and it 

 can, as it is said, keep possession against a much larger bird ; yet 

 from the present nest (the only one I have had the good fortune to 

 meet with), after having laid four eggs, the mother was ejected by a 

 Golden Eye. The dimensions of the egg accompanying this paper 

 are 1-32 in. x 1-05. 



Muoniovara, February 2nd, 1857. 



2. On the Skull of a species of Mecistops inhabiting the 

 River Binue or Tsadda, in Central Africa. 



By Dr. Balfour Baikie, F.R.Geogr.S., etc. 



The genus Mecistops, from the fewness of its numbers and the 

 retired localities which it inhabits, is but little known, scarcely any 

 mention of it being found in zoological writings. It was first distin- 

 guished as a species of Crocodilus by Cuvier, from a specimen still 

 preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Lon- 

 don, and which he named C. cat aphr actus. Since that time two 

 other species have been described, 31. Bennettii or 31. leptorhynchus 

 from Western Africa, and 31. Journei, said to be from New Guinea. 

 With the exception of this latter species it is quite an African genus, 

 inhabiting the various rivers falling into the Atlantic. In the ' Pro- 

 ceedings of the Zoological Society' for 1835, p. 128, the C. lepto- 

 rhynchus of Bennett is said to have come from Fernando Po ; but I 

 should think that this, except established on undoubted authority, 

 must be incorrect, chiefly because in that island the physical condi- 

 tions requisite for its existence are wanting. Fernando Po is a small 

 volcanic island, totally without the muddy rivers delighted in by 



