304 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



twenty instances of the visits of this little Owl to England ; 

 of these twelve belong to Yorkshire. The circumstances 

 relating to the first occurrence of this species in the county 

 were obligingly communicated by Mr. Thos. Stephenson of 

 Whitby, who states (MS.) that the late Martin Simpson, 

 curator of the Whitby Museum, informed him that the late 

 Thos. Richardson had a specimen from Sleights Moor, about 

 1840, and presented it to the Museum, but, being imperfectly 

 cured, it decayed. 



About the year 1847 ^^ O^^^ ^^ ^^^^ species was shot in 

 the woods at Hunmanby, by Admiral Mitford's keeper, its 

 occurrence remaining unknown until 1849, when it came 

 under the notice of the late David Graham of York. The 

 fact was afterwards recorded in the Zoologist (1849, P- 2649), 

 by Dr. Morris. 



A female example, killed at Lowthorpe in the year i860, 

 is in the Burton Agnes collection, formed by the late Sir 

 Henry Boynton. 



The late W. W. Boulton of Beverley and Mr. M. Bailey 

 of Flamborough kindly gave the information relating to the 

 fourth Yorkshire occurrence, of which the following is a 

 resume : — On ist October 1863, after a severe gale from the 

 north-east, a splendid specimen, in exquisite plumage, and 

 supposed from its size to be a mature female, was captured 

 at Flamborough in the day time by a man who ran it down 

 in a field, the bird being dazzled by the light and rendered 

 almost helpless. It was taken to Mr. Bailey for preser- 

 vation, afterwards formed part of the collection of John 

 Stephenson of Beverley, and is now in the possession of Mr. 

 Thomas Boynton of Bridlington. 



An example of this interesting little Owl was in the posses- 

 sion of the late William Lister of Glaisdale, who obtained it 

 at Egton, near Whitby, on 19th November 1872. It is now 

 in the Whitby Museum.^ Like the other specimens, this also 

 occurred in the immediate vicinity of the coast, and I believe 

 had been unrecorded until it was mentioned by Mr. W. Eagle 

 Clarke in the " Handbook of the Vertebrate Fauna of York- 

 shire." 



