138 
SCOPS BAKKAMUNA. 
duration of time between them. During the night, when hungry I presume, they made a snoring and hissing 
noise, and continued it for hours at a time. I have heard this note in the early evening in the Hibiscus-trees m 
the Galle Fort, and infer that it is the result of hunger. When looking at me, both this pair and the ruious 
bird already referred to oscillated their bodies to and fro, and moved their heads awry with the most comical 
aspect. They held their food in their talons, two toes in front and two behind, in the same manner as the 
Ceylon Wood-Owl, and after nibbling at it, paused, as if considering the expediency of the measure, and then 
quickly bolted it whole. Mr. S. Bligh had a tame bird at Kandy that would follow him round the room, alight 
on his shoulder, and nestle itself in his beard. 
Forster’s name for this Owl, as Mr. Holdsworth has shown in his catalogue, was ill-chosen; the term 
Bakamuna applies to the large Fish-Owl, signifying that it is a fish-eater, which the subject of this article 
certainly is not. I have, however, myself heard Ceylonese villagers, perhaps without thinking, apply the name 
Bakamuna instead of Bassa to the smaller Owls ; and some such mistake probably led to Forster s adoption 
of the name. 
Nidification . — In the southern parts of the island this Scops Owl breeds in February and March. It 
nests in hollow trees or in holes made by Woodpeckers in palms. A nest found at Oodogamma during my stay 
at Galle was placed in the hollow between the frond and the trunk of a Kitool-palm ( Caryota urens) . A few 
leaves or grass-stalks usually line the hole in which the eggs are deposited. These are from two to four in 
number, spherical in shape, and of a pure glossy white, and average, according to Mr. Hume, F25 inch m 
length by F05 inch in breadth. Mr. Blewit is mentioned by Mr. Hume as having found nests in boles oi 
trees, which were lined with leaves and straw. The parent bird is said to fight vigorously when her retreat is 
invaded. 
