STRKUD/K. 



297 



^Xn 



THE SCOPS-OWL. 



Scops giu (Scoi)oli). 



This, the smallest Owl which ocxurs in the British Islands, 

 was first noticed as a visitor in the spring of 1805, when speci- 

 mens were obtained in Yorkshire. Since that time examples 

 have been recorded from Essex, Middlesex, Bucks, Berks, Wilts, 

 Cornwall, Pembrokeshire, Lancashire and Cumberland ; but the 

 often-repeated story of the breeding of the Scops-Owl at Castle- 

 Eden Dene in 1 )urham is untrue, while as regards the five or six 

 occurrences ascribed to Norfolk, Mr. J. H. (iurney jun. considers 

 only one — that of November i86i- — can be implicitly relied on. 

 The statement that one was shot in Sutherland late in May 

 1S54, is accepted by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley. In Ire- 

 land one was killed in co. Meath in 1837, one in Wexford in the 

 spring of 1847, and a third near Belfast in November 1883. 



The Scops-Owl is only a summer-visitor even to the temperate 

 portions of Europe, seldom extending its migrations as far north 

 as Holland, Belgium, Northern France, or Cisalpine Switzerland. 

 Beyond the Alps and the Carpathians it is not uncommon ; while 

 in the south of France, the Spanish Peninsula, and Italy, and 

 thence eastward to (irecce, Turkey and Southern Russia, it be- 

 comes abundant. In fact, it is found in summer as far north as 



