LITTLE OWL. 



307 



The earliest reference to this, as a Yorkshire bird, is made 

 in 1768 in Pennant's " British Zoology " (i. p. 160), where it 

 is said to be " very rare in England ; it is sometimes formd 

 in Yorkshire." I suspect this is the authority from which 

 Dr. John Berkenhout obtained the information for his 

 " Synopsis of the Natural History of Great Britain " (1778), 

 in which this species is described as having occurred in York- 

 shire. Doubtless also Permant's book is the source whence 

 C. Fothergill derived the statement, given in his " Ornithologia 

 Britannica " (1799), that it is " extremely rare in this kingdom, 

 chiefly found in Yorkshire," 



In 1828 R. Leyland of Halifax published a list of the birds 

 occurring around that town, wherein he mentioned under the 

 head of Strix passerina, Little Owl — " I have reason to believe 

 that this species has been met with here ; it has not however 

 fallen under my own observation." The first edition of 

 Yarrell's unrivalled work on British Birds, published in 

 1843, contains a statement that the Little Owl has occurred 

 in Yorkshire, and this is reiterated in Prof. Newton's fourth 

 edition. 



The " little earless owl " is included in a list of the birds 

 which had been observed in Walton Park by the late Charles 

 Waterton, and published in 1866, after his death, by Dr. 

 Hobson. With regard to this, it should be remembered that 

 in the year 1842 Waterton purchased a dozen birds of this 

 species at Rome ; five of them survived the journey and 

 were liberated in Walton Park.* In more recent years Mr. 

 St. Quintin of Scampston Park, Rillington, has set at large 

 several of these Little Owls, which have bred in the county, 



* Under the heading of " FUght of ' Little Owls ' in Yorkshire " 

 the following doubtful record appeared in Neville Wood's Naturalist 

 (1838, p. 168) : " Mr. Rudston Read informs us that, some time since, 

 from twenty to thirty ' Little Owls ' were seen in a gorse cover belonging 

 to P. Davies Cooke, Esq., of Owston Hall, near Doncaster. Mr. Read's 

 informant was well acquainted with all the common British species 

 of Owl, and stated positively that the Owston birds belonged to none 

 of these. Unfortunately none of these ' Little Owls ' were pre- 

 served. — Ed." 



