GLAUCIDIUM CASTANOXOTTJM. 151 



Cuckoo-like call spoken of by Layard as belonging to this Owl, and am inclined to think that he, like myself, 

 mistook the note of the Hawk-Owl {Ninox scutulata), -which answers to his description, for that of this species. 

 Its usual food consists of Coleoptera and lizards, the former of which it takes on the wing. My friend 

 Mr. Forbes Laurie has seen these Owls in the Kalebokka district hawking at sundown about wooded 

 streams, and captuiing beetles. Higher game than either of these, however, is sometimes aspired to; for 

 Mr. Cobbold, of Maskeliya, informs me that he has witnessed one of these birds attacking a squirrel, and 

 others have known them to kill small birds, such as Finches (Munia) and the Hill White-eye (Zosterops cey- 

 lonensis) . This little Owl sees well in broad daylight, and has a very acute sense of hearing. 



Nidification. — This species breeds, in the west of Ceylon, during March, April, and May. It lays in a hole 

 in the trunk or limb of a tree, the cocoanut-palm being sometimes chosen ; the eggs are deposited on the bare 

 wood, and are two in number. A pair which I examined, and which were taken from the nest by the taxi- 

 dermist of the Colombo Museum, were oval in shape, pure white in colour, and measured respectively 1 - 41 

 by 1'lS inch, and l - 34 by T08 inch, showing a considerable disparity in size. 



The right-hand figure in the Plate accompanying my article on Scops minutus represents the example above 

 referred to, with more white on the scapulars than I have seen in any other. Mr. Keulemans's talented pencil 

 has portrayed this Owl in an attitude very characteristic of the genus Glaucidium. 



