TENGMALM’S OWL. 165 
differ from skins from South Sweden. This species breeds in the pine- 
forests of Europe and Asia south of the Arctic circle. In Northern France, 
Germany, Southern Scandinavia, and Central Russia it is principally found 
in winter. It is said to breed in the Alps and the Carpathians; but there 
is no reliable authority for its occurrence either in the Pyrenees or the 
Caucasus. In Lapland it breeds up to lat. 68°; in the Ural Mountains it 
has not been found further north than lat. 59°; but Dr. Finsch obtained it 
on the Obb in lat. 61°. Sharpe and Dresser copy Shelley’s error in 
assigning Egypt as a locality for this species *. On the American con- 
tinent its range is very similar, extending during the breeding-season 
nearly up to the Arctic circle from Alaska to Labrador. It occasionally 
appears in winter in the most northerly of the United States. 
Tengmalm’s Owl has no very near ally in Europe; but on the American 
continent it is represented in the central and southern portions of the 
Nearctic Region by Strix acadica (the Saw-whet Owl), a somewhat smaller 
bird, having much less white on the upper parts, with the forehead streaked 
instead of spotted with white, and having only three white bars instead of 
five on the tail. The capture of a bird of this species was recorded in the 
‘ Zoologist ’ (1860, p. 7104) by Sir W. Milner, not far from Beverley in 
Yorkshire. The species may have been wrongly determined; or, if the 
identification was correct, it may have been an escaped bird. 
Tengmalm’s Owl is principally confined to the pine-region; and very 
little is recorded of its habits. South of the Arctic circle it is said to be 
a strictly nocturnal bird. Wheelwright states that he rarely went out 
into the forest near Quickjock on any night without seeing this pretty 
little Owl hawking after its prey. In that latitude, however, there is 
scarcely any difference between night and day. For some weeks in summer 
the sun never sets, and during the whole twenty-four hours brilliant sun- 
shine is the rule rather than the exception. All that can be said is that 
Tengmalm’s Owl does not appear to be incommoded by the light, but 
nevertheless prefers the midnight sun to that of midday. 
This bird is a very early breeder ; and even in lat. 67° Wheelwright’s eggs 
were all taken between the 2nd and the 13th of May; whilst at Muoniovara, 
a degree still further to the north, Woliey obtained eggs between the 18th 
of May and the 2nd of June, and received them from a little further north 
between the Ist and the 27th of June. Wheelwright describes its call-note 
as a very musical, soft whistle, never heard except in the evening and at 
night. Its food consists of mice, beetles, and small birds. Wheelwright 
says that it is a bold voracious little bird, and that one night he shot a 
female in fuli chase of a lemming on a frozen lake. 
Tengmalm’s Owl is said not to build any nest. The eggs are laid in 
* In the Cat. B. Brit. Mus. ii. p. 186, Sharpe includes the specimen upon which this 
statement was founded in the list of examples of Carine glaux. 
