98 BTTBONTDJJ. 



The late Captain Cock wrote to me : — " In February 1875 at 

 Sitapur I found a nest of K. ceylonensis in a hollow in the trunk 

 of a huge mango about 9 feet from the ground. A native informed 

 me of the nest, and on climbing the tree the bird flew off its eggs. 

 I just satisfied myself that there were eggs, and I jumped down 

 and knocked the old bird over as she sat on an adjacent tree. The 

 pair of eggs, which were hard-set, were placed on a little dry mud 

 and leaves in this hollow about a foot down." 



Mr. G-. Vidal tells us that in the South Konkan this Owl is 

 " common both on the coast and inland, wherever there are shady 

 groves and large trees near water. Nine nests found from January 

 to March, all in hollows or depressions of mango-trees, one or two 

 eggs or young birds in each. One abnormally long egg I have 

 measures 2-.55 by 1-87." 



Messrs. Davidson and Wenden write : — " On 14th February, in 

 the Satara Districts, D. shot a hen from a nest which contained 

 an addled egg. We have not obtained this species in the Shola- 

 poor Districts." 



Colonel W. V. Legge, writing to me of the nesting of this Owl 

 in Ceylon, says : — " The Ketupa breeds with us in June, July, and 

 August, and chooses either a hole in a large tree or a ledge of rock. 

 The eggs are laid on the bare wood without any nest being con- 

 structed." 



Mr. J. E. Cripps, writing from Furreedpore in Eastern Bengal, 

 says : — " I shot an Owl in a clump of mango-trees on the out- 

 skirts of a \illage. The report of the gun flushed a second bird 

 from a large hollow in the stump of a mango-tree, and about 9 

 feet off the gi-ound : found two eggs, one just hatching off, which I 

 left ; no lining of any kind to the hole. The villagers told me 

 that every year a pair of this Fish-Owl lays in that hole." 



Finally Mr. Oates records this note from Pegu :^" Xest in a 

 fork of a large tree 10 feet from the ground. Two young birds 

 about one month old. March 31st." 



The eggs are very perfect, broad ovals, white, with, in most 

 specimens, the faintest possible creamy tinge. The shell close- 

 grained and compact, freely pitted all over its surface, but, never- 

 theless, more or less glossy. They seem to me undistinguishable 

 fi'om many of those of Bubo coromandus. 



In size the eggs vary from 2-29 to 2-56 inches in length and 

 fi'om 1-81 to 1-94 mch in breadth ; but the average of twelve eggs 

 measured was 2-38 by 1'88 inches. 



Ketupa javanensis, Less. The Malayan Pish^Owl. 

 Ketupa javanensis, Less, ; Hume, Cat. no. 73 his. 



Major C. T. Bingham found the nest of this Owl in Tenasserim. 

 He says : — " On the 27th February, whUe wandering about in the 

 ueighdourhood of Meeawuddy on the Thoungyeen River, I started 

 a couple of these Owls, of which I shot one, from among the 



