10 CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS OF PREY. 



from England, Denmark, Heligoland, France, Spain, 

 Madeira, Syria, Morocco, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, etc. ; 

 S. pratincola from Mexico, Guatemala, California, Cuba, 

 Trinidad, Granada, and Pennsylvania ; S. perlata from 

 Brazil, Chili, Peru, Guiana, Antioquia, Para and Ecuador, 

 and Central America; S. amaurota from the Philippines; 

 and S. poensis from Madagascar, Comoro Islands, and several 

 localities in South Africa. 



Forty-two kinds of -Scop* are illustrated by 243 skins, 

 and the Neotropical S. brasilianus may be taken as a sample 

 of what a good series can teach. Of this species the Museum 

 has two reputed Chili skins, from Messrs. Verreaux and 

 Warwick; but Mr. Sclater thinks the locality doubtful, and 

 by his advice Chili is not included in the map which is 

 here introduced to show the distribution of Scops. 



The number after each Latin name in both the Lists which 

 follow is the number of specimens, stuffed or in skin, in the 

 Norwich Museum; and one object in publishing these num- 

 bers is to induce friends in all countries to help in supplying 

 our desiderata to complete the collection on which my father 

 bestowed so much time and labour. 



young rats frequently, and middle-sized rats too. When a brown Owl of 

 any kind commits Hie crime of taking a Pheasant the triumphant keeper 

 does not fail to ltt me know : on the 3rd of last August a well- 

 nourished Pheasant of ten weeks old was killed bv a misguided Tawny 

 Owl (Symium aluco) and both were immediately forwarded. I tell this 

 because it does harm to this characteristic English bird to conceal his 

 occasional larcenies, which I maintain are more than balanced by the 

 rats and mice he takes, and have always found this to be the true argu- 

 ment in his behalf. 



A table of the food of eleven kinds of American Owds is given by my 

 father in the Norwich Nat. Trans, iv. p. G16, from which it appears that 

 Strix pratincola, the American Barn-Owl, was once guilty of the heinous 

 sin of eating a Pigeon (!), a crime which has been falsely laid to the charge 

 of its English cousin, 8. flammed. Probably this is the same very excep- 

 tional instance quoted in Fisher's ' Hawks and Owds of the United 

 States,' p. 139, where the subject of Owls' food is gone into and statistics 

 given gathered from many sources. 



