176 STR1RID7E. 



ing like " kew, kew," and pronounced at intervals of about 

 two seconds throughout the livelong night. " Towards the 

 end of April last year," says the celebrated entomologist, 

 Spence, writing in 1831, (Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 655), 

 " one of these Owls established itself in the large Jardhi 

 Ancjlais, behind the house where we resided at Florence ; 

 and, until our departure for Switzerland in the beginning 

 of June, I recollect but one or two instances in which it was 

 not constantly to be heard, as if in spite to the Nightingales 

 which abounded there, from nightfall to midnight (and pro- 

 bably much later) , whenever I chanced to be in the back part 

 of the house, or took our friends to listen to it, and always 

 with precisely the same unwearied cry, and the intervals 

 between each as regular as the ticking of a pendulum." 



Thompson relates that when proceeding from Malta to the 

 Morea on the 25th of April, 1841, at a distance of about 

 sixty miles from the coast of Calabria, the nearest land, an 

 Owl of this species on its northward flight came on board 

 the ship, and was captured just as itself had clutched a Lesser 

 Whitethroat. 



Mr. J. H. Gurney, Junior, has noticed that the Scops- 

 Owl resembles the Little Owl in its flight, but that it has a 

 much more attenuated appearance when perched, except it be 

 asleep. Then the feathers are so pufted out that the head is 

 undistinguishable from the body. It may be remarked that 

 the attitude assumed by Owls varies much in the different 

 species and is often highly characteristic, though seldom 

 correctly delineated by the draughtsman, who generally makes 

 the posture and expression of the Tawny Owl serve for all 

 the rest. 



This little Owl, according to Sir Andrew Smith, goes as 

 far south in Africa as Senegal ; but the species described by 

 Swainson, under the name of Scops scncrjalensis, is distinct 

 from that found in Europe, and both are distinct from that 

 named S. capensis by Sir Andrew Smith, which is found at 

 the Cape. By his kindness I have been enabled to compare 

 the European Scops with both the African species. To the 

 eastward the European Scops is represented by an Indian 



