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THE SPREAD OF THE LITTLE OWL FROM THE 

 CHIEF CENTRES OF ITS INTRODUCTION. 



H. F. WITHERBY and N. F. TICEHURST. 



The Little Owl (Athene noctua^ cannot now be regarded as 

 anything more than an introduced species in these islands 

 owing to the fact that so many have been "turned down " 

 in various parts of the country. The interest in its 

 possible migrations to England is, therefore, lost, and this 

 is to be deplored, but there is undoubted value in tracing- 

 how it has spread from the various centres of its intro- 

 duction. The following information has, therefore, been 

 collected, and we must here express our great indebted- 

 ness to various correspondents who have very kindly 

 supplied us with notes on the subject. 



As long ago as 1843 Charles Waterton liberated five 

 Little Owls, which he had brought from Rome the pre- 

 vious year, in Walton Park, Yorkshire, and of late years 

 (about 1890 and again in 1905) Mr. W. H. St. Quintin 

 has turned out some of these birds at Scampston Hall, 

 Rillington, but they did not do very well, and have now 

 apparently disappeared. Mr. St. Quintin writes that his 

 is " not a well-wooded district, and there are no rock- 

 crevices except along the coast ... I have given up any 

 hope of naturalizing the birds here." 



Little Owls have been turned down no doubt in many 

 other places (in Hampshire and at Tring for examples) 

 in small numbers at different times, but it seems that the 

 only " introductions " which have been really successful, 

 and, therefore, are of importance to our present purpose 

 of showing how an introduced species is able to multiply 



