k_.

Another sound familiar to those who sleep out of doors at this season
is a low, soft "what," repeated at intervals of about a minute.

The writer ascribes this call to the collared scops owl (_Scops
bakkamoena_). Mr. A. J. Currie, however, asserts that the note in
question is that emitted by spotted owlets (_Athene brama_) when they
have young. He states that he has been quite close to the bird when it
was calling.

A little patient observation will suffice to decide the point at
issue.

It is easy to distinguish between the two owls, as the scops has
aigrettes or "horns," which the spotted owlet lacks.

The nightjars help to swell the nocturnal chorus. There are seven or
eight different species in India, but of these only three are commonly
heard and two of them occur mainly in forest tracts. The call of the
most widely-distributed of the Indian goatsuckers--_Caprimulgus
asiaticus_, the common Indian nightjar--is like unto the sound made by
a stone skimming over ice. Horsfield's goatsucker is a very vociferous
bird. From March till June it is heard wherever there are forests. As
soon as the shadows of the evening begin to steal across the sky its
loud _chuk_, _chuk_, _chuk_, _chuk_, _chuk_ cleaves the air for
minutes together. This call to some extent replaces by night the
_tonk_, _tonk_, _tonk_ of the coppersmith, which is uttered so
persistently in the day-time. In addition to this note Horsfield's
nightjar emits a low soft _chur_, _chur_, _chur_.

The third nightjar, which also is confined chiefly to forest tracts,
is known as Franklin's nightjar (_C. monticolus_). This utters a harsh
_tweet_ which at a distance might pass for the chirp of a canary with
a sore throat.

Other sounds heard at night-time are the plaintive _did-he-do-it
pity-to-do-it_ of the red-wattled lapwing (_Sarcogrammus indicus_),
and the shrill calls of other plovers.

As has already been said, the nesting season is at its height in May.
With the exception of the paroquets, spotted owlets, nuthatches, black
vultures and pied kingfishers, which have completed nesting operations
for the year, and the golden-backed woodpeckers and the
cliff-swallows, which have reared up their first broods, the great
majority of the birds mentioned as having nests or young in March or
April are still busily occupied with domestic cares.

May marks the close of the usual breeding season for the jungle crows,
skylarks, crested larks, finch-larks, wood