The majority of the brown fish-owls (_Ketupa ceylonensis_) and rock
horned-owls (_Bubo bengalensis_) are sitting; a few of them are
feeding young birds. The dusky horned-owls (_B. coromandus_) have
either finished breeding or are tending nestlings. In addition to the
nests of the above-mentioned owls those of the collared scops owl
(_Scops bakkamaena_) and the mottled wood-owl (_Syrnium ocellatum_)
are likely to be found at this season of the year. The scops is a
small owl with aigrettes or "horns," the wood-owl is a large bird
without aigrettes.

Both nest in holes in trees and lay white eggs after the manner of
their kind. The scops owl breeds from January till April, while
February and March are the months in which to look for the eggs of the
wood-owl.

In the western districts of the United Provinces the Indian
cliff-swallows (_Hirundo fluvicola_) are beginning to construct their
curious nests. Here and there a pair of blue rock-pigeons (_Colombia
intermedia_) is busy with eggs or young ones. In the Punjab the ravens
are likewise employed.

The nesting season of the hoopoe has now fairly commenced. Courtship
is the order of the day. The display of this beautiful species is not
at all elaborate. The bird that "shows off" merely runs along the
ground with corona fully expanded. Mating hoopoes, however, perform
strange antics in the air; they twist and turn and double, just as a
flycatcher does when chasing a fleet insect. Both the hoopoe and the
roller are veritable aerial acrobats. By the end of the month all but
a few of the hoopoes have begun to nest; most of them have eggs, while
the early birds, described in January as stealing a march on their