THE BIEDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
and upon the plains as well as in the timber-covered ranges. For some time 
past one of these birds has taken up its daily perch on a low hough of a 
pine-tree just over the wood heap. When the axe is lifted high while chopping 
it almost reaches the bird : often a shower of chips surround it, but it does 
not show the slightest fear ; as dusk sets in I have often seen this bird fly 
from the limb and perch on the roof of the outhouses and watch for rats. 
Their almost round eggs are laid in a hollow spout, and although the eggs 
are usually pure white, I have taken them quite spotted with dark brown. 
The birds do not call much during the breeding-season.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby’s notes from the Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, Vol. III., 
read : “ The Boobook Owl {Ninox boobook) is numerous everywhere I have 
been in South Australia. I procured specimens near Perth, Western Australia, 
in which many of the light-coloured blotches were absent, and the barring 
almost imperceptible on the tail-feathers. A specimen I received from the 
goldfields, near Siberia Soak, was also very dark plumaged. It was sent to 
me as the bird that says ‘ more pork.’ I have also shot a bird I believed 
was making that note at Mount Barker, South Ausj^ralia, and it proved to be 
this species of Owl.” 
Regarding the West Australian bird, Mr. Tom Carter has written me : 
“ This Owl is fairly commonly distributed throughout the state, but is more 
numerous in the timbered south-west. They are rather erratic in their 
call notes, as the ‘ more pork ’ call (if it belongs to this species) is sometimes 
heard close round my house near Broome Hill for weeks together, and then 
many weeks may pass without one being heard. On June 21, 1910, I shot 
one that was being ‘ mobbed ’ by a lot of Red Wattlebirds, and in its gizzard 
it had two legs and feet, together with some wing bones and feathers of a 
Barnardius semitorquatus. Whether the bird had killed the parrot ' itself, 
or picked up the bones, &c., from near a homestead is uncertain, but I rather 
think the latter is what happened. The Mid-west bird, as far south as the 
Gascoyne River, is a much paler form, and naturally is most frequently seen 
in the timber along the river banks and creeks. At Point Cloates (where 
timber was absent) these birds were usually seen in the winter months 
about the ravines and gorges of the ranges.” 
Whitlock, dealing with the Birds on the Pilbarra Goldfield, in the Emu, 
Vol. VIII., p. 179, 1909, recorded Ninox ocellata ; “ The common Owl of the 
district. I am inclined to think it a migrant, as I flushed fi-ve from the 
foliage of eucalypts during one morning’s walk in the upper Coongan district. 
In all I found five nests. They were all in hollow limbs at various depths, 
and, with one exception, a lot of chopping was necessary before the eggs were 
accessible. Three is the usual number of eggs, which are large for the size of 
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