BTTBO. 101 



fact worth mentioning, as Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall has pointed 

 out that (in Northern India) these birds almost invariably select a 

 cliff facing westward." 



"Writing of Eajpootana in general, Lieut. H. E. Barnes says : — 

 " The Rock Horned Owl breeds during March and April." 



Captain Horace Terry communicates the following note : — 

 " About four miles from Bangalore, near the rifle-range at Hebbal 

 are some very peculiar nullahs. They are very deep, and instead 

 of forming a watercourse in any particular direction, wind about 

 to such an extent as to form a perfect maze. This is a grand 

 place for Owls, and any afternqon, wandering about there, oue 

 would be certain of seeing one or two B. hengdlensis, and towards 

 dusk of hearing what appeared to be an unlimited number. Al- 

 though I spent a good deal of time looking for them, I found but 

 one nest there, i£ nest it can be called, in December 1883. There 

 were two eggs much incubated, and much discoloured by the red 

 sand." 



The eggs of this species appear, comparatively speaking, very 

 uniform in size and shape. Very perfect broad ovals, white, with 

 a faint creamy tinge ; they are, but for a slight superior glossiness, 

 scarcely distinguishable from those of Syrnium ocellatum. In 

 texture they are finer than the eggs of B. eoromandits, and for the 

 size of the bird seem to me decidedly small. 



The eggs vary from 1'98 to 2-20 inches in length, and from 1"65 

 to 1-8 inch in breadth ; but the average of ten eggs measured is 

 2-10 by 1-73 inch. 



Bubo coromandus (Lath.). TJie Dusky Horned Owl. 



Uri'ua coromanda (Lath.), Jercl. B. Ind. i, p. 130 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. c^ E. no. 70. 



The vast majority of these Dusky Horned Owls lay (in Upper 

 India at any rate) in December and January, but I have found the 

 eggs on several occasions in February and once early in March. 



Asa rule, they construct stick-nests (which from the same pair 

 resorting to them for many successive seasons, and adding to them 

 yearly, are at times enormous) in the fork of some large tree. At 

 times they appropriate some old nest of the Tawny Eagle placed in 

 some thick and thorny, but comparatively low, acacia tree. In 

 most fcases, the nest contains some lining of more or less green 

 leaves, and a few feathers or a little grass. Occasionally I have 

 found the eggs laid in the hollow of some huge stump, or in the 

 depression at the fork of three or more large branches, with no 

 stick-nest, and only a few dry leaves as a bed ; but out of more than 

 thirty nests that I found one December in trees along the banks 

 of the canal near Hansee and Hissar, all but one were regular stick 

 structures. One nest contained no lining but a httle dry earth. 

 The great majority of the nests that I have examined contained 

 two eggs, often much incubated, but I once found three, and have 



