164 BRITISH BIRDS. 
STRIX TENGMALMI. 
TENGMALWS OWL. 
(PLATE 7.) 
Strix tengmalmi, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 291 (1788); et auctorum plurimorum— 
Temminck, Naumann, Vieillot, Schlegel, Sundevall, (Newton), (Salvadorz), (Shelley), 
(Sharpe § Dresser). 
Strix dasypus, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl. ii. p. 972 (1805). 
Athene tengmalmi (Gimel.), Bove, Isis, 1822, p. 549. 
ARgolius tengmalmi (Gmel.), Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 54 (1829). 
Noctua tengmalmi (Gmel.), Cuv. Regn. An. i. p. 345 (1829). 
Ulula tengmalmi (Gmel.), Bp. Oss. Reg. An. Cuv. p. 53 (1880). 
Syrnium tengmalmi (Gmel.), Lyton, Hist. Rarer Br. B. p. 90 (1836). 
Scotophilus tengmalmi (Gmel.), Swains, Classif. B. ii. p. 217 (1837). 
Nyctale tengmalmi (Gmel.), Bp. Comp. List B. Eur. § N. Amer. p. 7 (1838). 
Nyctale richardsoni, Bp. Comp. List B. Eur. § N. Amer. p. 7 (1838). 
Strix frontalis, Licht. Abh. Akad. Berlin, p. 430 (1888). 
Nyctale dasypus (Bechst.), Gray, List Gen. B. p. 6 (1840). 
Nyctale tengmalmi (Gmel.), var. richardsoni, Ridgw. Am, Nat. 1872, p. 285. 
Nyctale funerea (Linn.), apud Bonaparte, Schlegel, Taczanowski, &e. 
Tengmalm’s Owl is an accidental visitor to the British Islands. At 
least a couple of dozen instances of its occurrence have been recorded, 
three of them in Scotland, but none in Ireland. Some of these alleged 
occurrences are myths; for example, the specimen killed near Horsham, 
and now in Mr. Borrer’s collection, I found on examination to be a Little 
Owl (Noctua noctua),whilst some have undoubtedly escaped from captivity. 
On the other hand, it is quite possible that some of the recorded instances 
of the capture of the Little Owl in our islands refer to this species. 
The migrations of Tengmalm’s Owl are generally confined to a descent 
from the mountains, where it breeds, to the plas; but there can be little 
doubt that in certain seasons some individuals extend their migrations 
much further, as it has several times occurred in the autumn on Heligoland, 
whence it doubtless crosses the sea to our islands. 
Tengmalm’s Owl is a circumpolar bird. At the time Messrs. Newton 
and Dresser wrote on this species its distribution in Siberia was unknown. 
Some writers, amongst whom are Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, attempt to 
make the American bird subspecifically distinct from the European one, on 
the ground of there being more of the brown spotting on the plumage, 
especially on the feet and under tail-coverts—a feature characteristic of 
immature birds. I have been unable to detect any difference between 
examples from the Palearctic and Neartic Regions beyond the fact that 
American birds are slightly darker than Palearctic ones, and may have the 
feathers on the feet not so pure a white. There does not even seem to be 
an Arctic form; examples sent by my collector from Krasnoyarsk scarcely 
