SYRNIUM LAPPONICUM. 173 



for, on the 16tli Jiily 1856, he annoimced, as a novelty, to the Meeting of 

 Scandinavian Naturalists at Christiania (Forhandl. Skand. Naturf. 7de Mode, 

 p. 221) that " Strix Lapponica, according to the report of several trustworthy 

 persons who had seen its nests, lays its eggs in a depression on the top of the 

 stump of a broken-ofF tree." On the 24th March 1857, he communicated a 

 paper to the Zoological Society of London (' Proc. Zool. Soc.,' 1857, pp. 56, 57), 

 in which he related the actual discovery, by men in his employment, of the 

 two nests from which eggs were brought to him in 1856, as described below 

 (§§ 561 and 562). At that time he thought that three was the usual number 

 of eggs laid, but it will be seen further on that the complement is often 

 greater.] 



§ 561. Two. — Juonto-selka-maa, Kello-joki, Kemi Lappmark, 

 1856. 



P. Z. S., 1857, p. 56. 0. W. tab. ix. fig. 9. 



These, brought home by Piety as Pikku Huuhkaja, agree exactly 

 with the Kurkio-vaara eggs [§ 562], from which the bird was shot, 

 and is now here. The place was a little to the north-east of So- 

 dankyla. Piety met with a man there, who said he had shot a 

 Hawk and another bird. Piety went to his house, and saw the bird 

 and the eggs. It was a Pikku Huuhkaja, a bird he knows very well. 

 He cut it up, and therein was another egg, not ready to be laid, but 

 just like the two ; hence he is certain about the species to which they 

 belong. This nest was on the top of a broken trunk of a Scotch fir, 

 the main part of which hung down ; but, from the description, Piety 

 thinks there was some old nest there. He does not remember see- 

 ing any nest made. It was not high up, some two fathoms perhaps ; 

 but those which he has seen before were not more than one fathom 

 high. The top of the tree, where it was broken ofi", was not level, 

 but had a great splinter on one side. The birds are very bold at the 

 nest, and the cry of the cock attracts people to the nest. The cry 

 is three notes drawn out, the first hardest, the second lighter and 

 short, the third lightest and longest of all : — " HU, hu, hu-u-u." 

 They had not before seen this bird at Sodankyla — as they said, at 

 least. 



articles, " Breeding-zones of Birds in Scandinavia," in the ' Naumannia,' where 

 (vol. iv. pp. 76, 77) he quotes, as I have done, from Herr Lowenhjelm's paper. 

 —Ed.] 



