AXD NEIGHBOURHOOD. 67 



Owl sittino; in a hollow bough of an old ash-tree in 

 the deer-park at Lilford ; she would not move, but he 

 lifted her, and found that she was sitting upon a 

 single e^^, to which she added three, and brought off 

 four young birds in the second week of June. One, 

 if not two, other broods were reared in our near 

 neighbourhood in 1889. In 1890 a nest of Little 

 Owl containing six eggs was found in another hollow 

 ash-tree in the park on April 25 : all these eggs were 

 hatched and the young reared to maturity. On 

 October 15 of the last-named year I received a Little 

 Owl alive and uninjured that had been discovered by 

 a pointer-dog a few days before in a rabbit-burrow in 

 the park at Deene. I was informed that a bird- 

 stuffer at Stamford had one of the present species 

 (which he called a " Dutch Owl ") in his shop, in 

 February 1891, sent to him from Normanton, Rutland. 

 A " nestful" of young was discovered early in July 

 1891 by a gamekeeper in a hollow elm on the 

 Wadenhoe Manor, and was left unmolested. During 

 the first three months of 1892 I received very frequent 

 reports of Little Owls seen from many different places 

 in the neighbourhood of Lilford, and on April 19 a 

 nest containing four eggs was found on Wadenhoe, 

 within a short distance of the nesting-place of 1891, 

 in a cavity of an ash-pollard. Towards the end of 

 June the tenant of the farm upon which this pollard 

 stands, unaware of the Owl's nest, passed Avithin a 

 few feet of it, and was furiously attacked from behind 

 by one of the parent birds, which knocked his hat 

 over his eyes and clawed the back of his head severely. 

 The only other record of this species that I find in my 

 note-book for 1892 is to the effect that Mr. A. Thor- 

 burn saw near our aviary, and made a charming 



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