312 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



[It is supposed that the Little Screech Owl {Scops asio, 

 L.), which is, according to Audubon (" Orn. Biog."), a some- 

 what common North American species, has occurred on two 

 occasions in England, in the counties of York and Norfolk 

 (Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk," Vol. I. p. 44) ; but the 

 bird's claim to a place on the British list is not admitted, 

 and Mr. H. E. Dresser, one of the best authorities we have 

 on the avifauna of Europe, states that it has not been reported 

 from any part of the Continent. 



The information relating to the occurrence in which we are 

 specially interested is, along with an etching of the bird, con- 

 tained in the late Dr. Hobson's communication to the Naturalist 

 of 1855 (p. 169), from which the following is abstracted : — 



The Owl in question is in its grey plumage, and was shot 

 by Joseph Owen in the breeding season of 1852 in Hawksworth 

 Cover, the property of the Earl of Cardigan, half a mile above 

 Kirkstall Abbey, and within the borough of Leeds. At 

 that period there were a pair of Owls, and so far as Owen could 

 judge by moonlight they appeared to be similar iji size, colour, 

 and flight. He at once saw that these birds differed materially 

 from our Common Screech Owl, and was therefore extremely 

 anxious to secure them ; and, having shot one, he went to 

 their haunt night after night to obtain the other, but this 

 unfortunately he could never accomplish. Owen, ignorant 

 of the value of his treasure, gave this Owl, in the flesh, to a 

 bird-stuffer in Leeds, called Matthew Smith, who immediately 

 put it up under the impression that it was a " Scops-eared 

 Owl," and, under the same error in judgment, sold it to 

 Dr. Hobson.] 



EAGLE OWL. 

 Bubo ignavus (T. Forster). 



Accidental visitor, from Continental Europe, of extremely rare 

 occurrence. 



The earliest allusion to this species, as a Yorkshire bird, is 

 made by Pennant in 1768 (" British Zoology," i. p. 157), 

 who stated that it had once been shot in the county. 



