THE SPREAD OF THE LITTLE OWL. 841 



ham. The earliest record we can find from the former is 

 sometime prior to 1893, but the birds were probably there 

 some years before that ; likewise at Westerham it has been 

 established at least six years,^ and probably much longer. 

 From these two places the birds have evidently spread 

 north to Keston, Hayes, and Bromley (Meade- Waldo), and 

 a single bird was reported from North Cray, between the 

 latter place and Dartford, in 1897. t 



From the valley of the Darenth there are one or two 

 isolated records, but the birds would seem to have pene- 

 trated at a very early date as far as Dartford. Mr. A. B. 

 Farn informs us (wi litt?) that he saw a bird, shot in the 

 locality, in the flesh in a bird-stuffer's shop in the latter 

 town in the early seventies, and in the winter of 1883-84 

 he himself saw one leave a hollow tree at Swanscombe. 

 Mr. W. J. Davis states + that it is apparently not un- 

 common in Horton Woods, near Dartford, as he received 

 two specimens from there in 1903 and several since. 



From the Darenth Valley a few birds seem to have 

 spread eastward, and were reported from Shorne, between 

 Gravesend and Rochester, some time prior to 1893,§ and 

 from Cuxton, between Rochester and Maidstone, in 1894. || 



To the east and south-east of their point of introduction 

 they have been reported from as far off as Cranbrook in 

 1903,1[ and from Bilsington in 1906, and Boxley, near 

 Maidstone, in 1907.'^^ 



Mr. C. W. R. Knight, in a letter to " Country Life," 

 19th October, 1907, described a nest found by him in April 

 that year, but he does not give the locality. He remarks, 

 however, that " the bird seems to be distributed throughout 

 the wooded districts of Kent " ; this is in our opinion far 

 too sweeping a statement, for while the bird is probably 

 far more common in the localities mentioned above than 



* W. J. Davis, Birds of Kent, p. 103. f Field, 20, ii., 1897. 



X W. J. Davis, Birds of Kent, p. 103. 



§ C. H. Fielding, Memories of Mailing, p. 257. 



1 1 H. Elgar, in Hit. ^ R. E. Cheesman, in lift. 



** R. J. Balston, and others, Notes on the Birds of Kent. p. 276. 



