174 STRIGID.E. 



that the species which is known as a regular summer migrant 

 in most parts of Southern Europe, arriving and departing 

 with the Swallow, is in this country but a casual visitor ; and 

 that we have it at all is probably due to the fact that the 

 examples observed have been stragglers which have lost 

 their way. It is almost strictly nocturnal in its habits, 

 passing the day, according to MM. Jaubert and Barthelemy- 

 Lapommeraye, hidden in thick foliage, or squatting length- 

 ways on a bare branch, and feeds upon mice, shrews, beetles, 

 grasshoppers and large moths. It forms a simple nest in 

 holes of trees, and possibly of walls, or in the fissures of 

 rocks, laying from two to four or five eggs, which are white, 

 and measure from 1*22 to 1-17 by from 1*07 to 1*04 in. 



The example of this little Owl, which was figured by 

 Selby, was taken near London ; and I am indebted to Mr. 

 Joseph Clarke, of Safiron-Walden, for the knowledge of the 

 occurrence of two specimens on the estate of Lord Bray- 

 brooke, at Audley End in Essex — all three having been met 

 with prior to November, 1837. Dr. Hastings, in his ' Wor- 

 cestershire,' notices that one was taken alive near Fladbury. 

 Of those shot in Yorkshire, as already mentioned, Mr. 

 Fothergill's was killed near Wetherby in the spring of 1805, 

 and is the subject of Bewick's woodcut representing this 

 species, while others are in the Foljambe Collection at 

 Osberton. The Scops has been obtained some four or five 

 times in Norfolk, at seasons so opposite as June and 

 November, as well as at Brill, in Bucldnghamshire, in the 

 spring of 1833 (Zool. p. 2596) near Pembroke in the spring 

 of 1868 (Zool. s.s. p. 1671), and many years ago, according 

 to Mr. A. C. Smith, in Wiltshire. Mr. Gould mentions the 

 occurrence of one in Berkshire, in 1858, and of another more 

 recently killed by Mr. J. H. Leche of Carden Park, Cheshire. 

 Mr. Rodd has recorded that one was shot at Scilly, in April, 

 1847, and (Zool. s.s. p. 2482) another taken at Trevethoe on 

 the north coast of Cornwall, early in January of the present 

 year (1871). In Ireland it has occurred twice, once at 

 Loughcrew in the county Meath in 1837, as mentioned by 

 Thompson, and again in the spring of 1847, at Kilmore in 



