EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 27 



birds so obtained may have escaped from captivity. It inhabits 

 the forest districts of all the countries of Continental Europe, 

 from Scandinavia, Lapland, and Northern Russia, southward to 

 the shores of the Mediterranean, and is a rare winter straggler to 

 N. E. Africa, though it breeds in the mountains and forests of 

 Algeria. 



The Eagle-Owl is an early breeder, and commences to lay in 

 March and early in April. It seldom, if ever, makes a nest of its 

 own, but takes possession of any old nest it can find, rarely 

 choosing one more than thirty feet from the ground. It breeds 

 in a tree or in the cleft of a rock, and the eggs have very often 

 been found in a slight hollow scratched in the ground at the foot 

 of a tree. 



The eggs are usually three in number, sometimes only two. 

 They are pure white, very rotund, and the shell is somewhat 

 rough in texture. Their superior size prevents them from being 

 confused with those of any other species of European Owl. They 

 measure from 2'55 to 21 inches in length, and from 2'0 to 1"85 

 inch in breadth. 



THE SCOPS OWL. 



(Scops scops.)* 



Plate 6, Fig. G. 



About twenty specimens of this rare visitor have been recorded 

 in the British Islands. It breeds throughout Europe south of 

 the Baltic, wintering in North-Eastern Africa as far as Abyssinia. 

 Eastward it breeds as far as Asia Minor, Turkestan, and Persia. 



The Scops Owl breeds almost universally in hollow trees ; but 

 Tristram found its nest in holes of walls, and Kriiper describes it 

 as especially common on the island of Naxos, laying its eggs in 

 the scaffold-holes which the indolent Greeks omitted to fill up in 

 the houses. Like all the Owls, the present species makes little 

 or no nest, merely a little hollow being scratched out, and lined 

 with the indigestible portions of the bird's food. 



The eggs are from five to six in number, pure white, and varying 

 in length from 13 to 1'15 inch, and in breadth from 11 to 10 

 inch. 



* Scops gin — Saunders, Manual, p. 297. 



