[Footnote 1: Falco peregrinus, _Linn_.]

[Footnote 2: Tinnunculus alaudarius, _Briss_.]

[Footnote 3: Astur trivirgatus, _Temm_.]

[Footnote 4: Milvus govinda, _Sykes_. Dr. Hamilton Buchanan remarks that
when gorged this bird delights to sit on the entablature of buildings,
exposing its back to the hottest rays of the sun, placing its breast
against the wall, and stretching out its wings _exactly as the Egyptian
Hawk is represented on their monuments_.]

_Owls_.--Of the nocturnal accipitres the most remarkable is the brown
owl, which, from its hideous yell, has acquired the name of the
"Devil-Bird."[l] The Singhalese regard it literally with horror, and its
scream by night in the vicinity of a village is bewailed as the
harbinger of approaching calamity.

[Footnote 1: Syrnium indranee, _Sykes_. The horror of this nocturnal
scream was equally prevalent in the West as in the East. Ovid Introduces
it in his _Fasti_, L. vi. 1. 139; and Tibullus in his Elegies, L.i. El
5. Statius says--

"Nocturnæ-que gemunt striges, et feralia bubo
_Danna canens_." Theb. iii. I. 511.

But Pliny, 1. xi. c. 93, doubts as to what bird produced the sound; and
the details of Ovid's description do not apply to an owl.

Mr. Mitford, of the Ceylon Civil Service, to whom I am indebted for many