58 THE BIRDS OF NOEIHAMPTONSHIRE 



the present species, and declared that " tins is the 

 bird." 



1 may here mention that I have been positively 

 assured by several friends of the former existence of 

 a very minute " Horned " Owl in Wakerley Wood, a 

 large covert belonging to Lord Exeter, not far from 

 Barrowden. The concurrent testimony of my various 

 informants was to the effect that a few of these little 

 birds were generally to be seen when the wood was 

 shot through, and that they were about the size of a 

 INlissel-Tlirush. I never could discover that any one 

 had shot one, and the only time that I had the 

 pleasure of shooting in Wakerley Wood I found the 

 gamekeepers ignored the little Owls altogether. The 

 Scops Owl is a regular and, in some parts, a very 

 abundant summer migrant to Southern Europe ; but 

 has occurred in England and Ireland at almost all 

 seasons of the year. The probability of its beirg 

 met with in the covert shooting-season in any one 

 particular spot in this country is but small, but my 

 informants were so positive as to size, and the fact of 

 the birds being '■'' licruccV Owls, that I can but tell 

 the story as it was told many times to me. I should 

 at once have considered the bird to be the Little 

 Owl [Athene nocfua), also a rare visitor to this 

 country, though it ranges commouly further north- 

 wards on the continent of Europe than the Scops, 

 but the Little Owl is not ^'■lorned,'' and I must 

 therefore leave my readei's to draw their own 

 inferences. 



I have met with the Scops Owl in great abundance 

 in various parts of Spain and in the Ionian Islands, 

 in which countries it arrives from the south in A])ril, 

 for the most part leaving again in November, though 



