170 STRIGID^. 



to the description of a nest of this species, found by that much- 

 regretted ornithologist in the very district where Linnaeus 

 saw the nests just mentioned ; and the close agreement, even 

 in some minute particulars, of the accounts given by these 

 two observers affords remarkable proof of the accuracy of 

 each. 



In the southern and western counties of England, the 

 Eagle-Owl has been obtained in Kent, Sussex and Devon- 

 shire. One was caught alive so near London as Hampstead, 

 and it is said to have occurred in Suffolk, Norfolk, Oxford- 

 shire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Durham ; besides near 

 Swansea in Wales. Some of these instances certainly, and 

 possibly most of them, are due to examples which have 

 escaped from captivity. In Scotland it was said of old time 

 by Sibbald to inhabit the Orkneys, while Messrs. Baikie and 

 Heddle mention a specimen obtained, in 1830, on Sandey, 

 one of the islands of that group. According to Pennant an 

 example was killed in Fifeshire in the last century, and 

 Mr. Eobert Gray mentions, on the authority of Mr. Angus, 

 the capture of one in Aberdeenshire, in February, 1866. 

 Other cases of its supposed occurrence have also been given, 

 but a mistake as to the species seems likely to have been 

 made. The only record of the Eagle-Owl's appearance in 

 Ireland rests on an unsatisfactory statement, quoted by 

 Thompson, to the effect that once, after a great storm, four 

 such birds paid a two days' visit to Donegal, but were not 

 seen again. 



This bird inhabits all the countries of continental Europe, 

 from Lapland to the shores of the Mediterranean, as well as 

 the whole of Siberia, to the furthest corner of Asia ; espe- 

 cially frequenting tracts of forest and mountains. It is by 

 no means rare, according to Mr. Swinhoe, in many parts of 

 China, going as far southward as Amoy and Canton. Mr. 

 Jerdon says that it occurs in the higher regions of the Hima- 

 layas, whence a specimen was sent to the Calcutta Museum 

 by Captain Smyth of Almorah. Strickland obtained it in 

 Asia Minor. It is not known to occur in Palestine, though 

 occasionally met with in winter in Lower Egypt. It is found 



