the silence of the closing night. It has another cry like that of a hen 
just caught; but the sounds which have earned for It Its bad name, and which 
I have heard but once to perfection, are Indescribable, the most appalling 
that can be Imagined, and scarcely to be heard without shuddering, I can 
only compare It to a boy In torture, whose screams are being stopped by oe- 
Ing strangled. 
The only European that had seen and Sired at one agreed with natives that 
it Is of the size of a pigeon, with a long tall, I believe it is a Podar- 
gus or Night Hawk*. 
I believe myself there Is no doubt about the bird being an owl, as nane cr 
the Night-jars in Ceylon ever utter notes at all resembling these cries. 
The natives, however, who brought me ray young specimens of the Wood Owl at 
Galle did not seem to know that they were the bird accredited with these noi¬ 
ses, but simply called them "Bakkamuna* or Large Owl. 
Mr Holdsworth, who was of opinion, from the description given him by na¬ 
tives of the Devil Bird, that it was an owl, was fortunate enough to hear 
its cry one night in the Aripu dlstclct, but was unable to discern tne au¬ 
thor of them. While watching at a water hole for the purpose of shooting 
bears, he was suddenly alarmed by piercing cries and convulsive screams sudoa 
denly issuing from a small patch of bushy jungle about thirty yarns from nls 
hiding place. He says, “My hunter at first thought a leopard was there, 
and told me to keep quiet; but the cries Increased and became so horribly 
agonizing that it was difficult to believe murder was not being committed. 
Before I reached the place all was silent as before, and the idea of tne De¬ 
vil Bird flashed across my mind. This was afterwards confirmed by the hun¬ 
ter, who, however, did not care to talk much about it* 
My readers will gather from the above summary of evidence that there does 
exist in Ceylon some nocturnal bird which utters very singular notes, out 
that it is not quite clear what the species really is. The natives at dif¬ 
ferent times and different places had given rae the most contradictory ans¬ 
wers concerning the delinquent, but in many parts of the island they oelieve 
that it is the brown wood owl; and from them Messrs Kelaart and Layard re¬ 
ceived the idea that it was so, hence the current opinion among Europeans 
as to the supposed identity of this noisy bird of ill omen. 
I endeavoured during my stay in Ceylon to discover whether these notes 
really were attributable to this bird or not, but I fallen to find out any¬ 
thing satisfactory in the matter. My rearing of two of them (one of which 
I had in confinement for more than a year) did not assist me in my inquiry; 
