1.48 NINOX SCUTULATA. 



complaining cry of the Loris (Stenops gracilis) . In the morning it calls until a late hour, appearing to be 

 regardless of the scorching rays of an eight o'clock sun, at which time I have seen it in an exposed situation 

 ou the banks of the Gindurah giving out its last matutinal cry. These Owls feed almost exclusively on beetles, 

 moths, and grasshoppers, and seem to take their food until retiring in the morning, the stomach of a bird I 

 killed in the Wellaway Korale at two o'clock in the afternoon being filled with undigested Coleoptera. They 

 capture insects on the wing, and have the movements of Goatsuckers while hawking. Mr. Davison records of 

 the allied Andaman species (N. affinis), that he observed it at Camorta, Nicobars, hovering in front of a cocoa- 

 nut-palm, taking short circular nights from its perch, from which it would now and then dart suddenly up to 

 a height of 15 or 20 feet. The singular cries attributed by Tickell and Dr. Hamilton to the North-Indian 

 species are not applicable to our Ceylon bird. These writers liken them to the noise made by a strangling 

 cat or a hare when caught by hounds. Besides the well-known hoot which I have referred to above, it is 

 possible that this species is the author of a singular note which I have heard in the north-east and south-east 

 of Ceylon, but which I never succeeded in identifying. It may be likened to the syllables tvhok — chok-korok, 

 uttered in moderately slow and even time and repeated for a long interval. 



Nidification. — This species breeds in the early part of the year. Layard records shooting a female in 

 November with the ovaries distended with eggs ; and a nest found at Kaesbawa in the first week of April by 

 the taxidermist of the Colombo Museum, Mr. Hart, contained one egg. This was pure white, of course, 

 round in shape, and measured 1*45 by 1'27 inch. Another nest, containing one nestling, was found by 

 Mr. MaeYicar in April 1873, near Bope. It was situated in a hole in a mango-tree, about 15 feet from the 

 ground ; at the bottom of the cavity there were no materials, the chick reposing simply on the dead wood of 

 the tree. 



