178 texgmalm's owl. 



the chapel — its three tormentors disposing themselves within a few feet ; 

 and, though they assailed it with cries, they kept at a distance of about a 

 yard. Though I got within seven feet of the bird, immediately beneath it, 

 I was unable to ascertain to which of the above pigmy species it belonged 

 —partly from want of light, and partly from its ruffling its breast feathers, 

 in which it muffled its bill in a slumberous manner. I was thus unable to 

 note the chequered colour of the breast, which is one of the best points of 

 distinction between the species. Disturbed either by myself or by its 

 assailants, the tiny striyid made off with the usual fluffy flight of its order 

 to the tree before the Ladies' School. Upon the instant of its leaving the 

 first tree it was chased and screamed at by the small birds, which seemed 

 bent upon driving it away. These were a blackbird, a linnet, and — not- 

 withstanding the season of the year — I think a starling. Referring to the 

 ' Historia Naturalis Orcadensis,' I find that a specimen of the Strix 

 TengmaZmi was shot by myself in Wales in 1857, placed in the Museum at 

 Kirkwall. I know not that either species of owl has been seen in Scotland 

 since. My reason for noticing the occurrence of this rare owl in a public 

 print, and not in a scientific journal, is to educe further evidence of assaults 

 upon Raptores and Stric/idce, by birds whose weapons of offence are com- 

 paratively feeble. Surely a little owl might be regarded as an inoffensive 

 stranger during the day by a bird as nearly as big as itself — a blackbird ; 

 or did the ' sentinel stars' not keep a sufficiently sharp look-out in the 

 night ; and had the little marauder during the ' silent watches' — silent as 

 themselves — been promiscuously gobbling up the better-halves of the mixed 

 multitude which assailed him ?— M. Foster Heddle, St Leonard's, 2Sth Jan. 

 1886." 



From what he says about the owl " ruffling its breast 

 feathers in which it was muffling its bill in a slumberous 

 manner," I think it was Noctua Teugmalmi, whose large head, 

 short neck, and full, downy plumage would give it that appear- 

 ance, and is one of its distinctive features. The doubt as to 

 the starling being one of its three tormentors, because it was in 

 January, may be cleared, as the starling is plentiful in St 

 Andrews all the year through ; and as regards the assaults made 

 upon owls by smaller birds, we need not wonder at it, for a 

 writer in the press says : — 



" In Greece, for example, people look upon it as a solemn duty to stone 

 every owl that comes in their way, and consider such an action as a meri- 

 torious kind of sport which everybody may indulge in. I happened 

 myself to see a set of louts, students, in an Athenian seminary, engaged in 

 killing a poor little owl by throwing stones at it. I told them it was a great 

 shame ; but the only answer I received was — ' But don't you see it's an 

 owl? don't you see it's an owl ?' which seemed to be a conclusive argument 

 for the death of the owl. In many parts of Northern Germany the shrew 

 mouse is considered a fiendish creature, meriting death in a barbarous 

 manner. The orthodox mode of killing it is by putting this poor little 

 animal into a hole of a tree and plugging it up. The hedgehog, too, 

 belongs to the class of innocently persecuted creatures. I myself, when a 

 boy, have heard my older companions in the Westphalian Mountains main- 

 tain that the hedgehog must be impaled alive, wherever it be found. It is 

 remarkable how tradition and fable survive. In the case of the owl at 

 Athens alluded to, the present hatred may, perhaps, be explained as being 

 the reverse of the ancient veneration. As is well known, the owl was. 



