ASIONID^—0 WLS. 



i6i 



E At LL t\\ I 



remarkable, that in March, i88g, Mr. G. W. Brewis, of Chesterford Park, about a 

 mile distant, noticed two singular Owls which remained for some weeks in a larch 

 plantation close to his house. Though not seen, there is some probability that they 

 were Scops Owls, for their note, which was described to me on the spot by both 

 Mr. Brewis and his keeper, and which wasiheard ever}- evening for half-an-hour, 

 was not a hoot, being a metallic call, some- 

 what resembling the " toot " of a horn, pro- 

 nounced regularly every half or quarter of 

 a minute. The keeper (Harrington) is sure 

 they were " Foreigners." The evidence is 

 not altogether unsatisfactory, as the reports 

 more or less corroborate one another, and 

 the birds were seen in four successive years, 

 while one was shot in the third. Still none 

 of those who saw the birds were really com- 

 petent to identify them, and it is probable 

 they were only young Long-eared Owls.* 



Eagle Owl : Bubo .ignavus. 



I have no record of this large, 

 rare and showy species having ever 

 been obtained in Essex, but Mr. 

 Hope has " seen it on the borders 

 of Essex in May and October." 



Little Owl : Athene nodiia. 



A rare and occasional visitant only to England. Its occurrence in 

 Essex has only once, or perhaps twice, been recorded. 



r^ Mr. Edwin Ward records that on Jan- 

 uary 2nd, 1865, whilst out shooting, Dr- 

 Sewell found an adult female in perfect 

 plumage and quite fresh, lying dead be- 

 neath a tree in a small fir-plantation at 

 Chigwell. It had apparently killed itself 

 by flying against a tree, as the skull and 

 atlas-bone were fractured and there was 

 extravasated blood in the throat (29. Jan. 

 14, and 38. 92). It is now in the collection 

 of Mr. Hope, of Upminster Hall. 



Edward Blyth writes (12. ix. 624) : — 



" I was told this morning [October 18. 

 1836], that about two months ago a person 

 offered to the son of my informant ' a 

 curious little Owl, no bigger than a Star- 

 ling,' which had been iust knocked down in 

 the county of Essex. The youth not caring 

 to have it, it was offered to another per- 

 son for 2s., who refusing, however, to give 

 LITTLE OWL, J^. IS, 6d. for the specimen, did not obtain it. 



^Vhat finally became of it I could not hear, but most probably it was thrown away." 



* A specimen recorded (25. Oct. 25th, 1S79) to have been shot off Southend, on Sept. 25th 

 5, proves to be an abnormal Short-eared Owl. 



M 



