

FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 167 



(58) Carine noctua. Little Owl. 



Mr. S. H. Wallis wrote me, 4 February, 1916: 

 " You know how the Little Owl is spreading. 

 Three pairs have been killed under my notice 

 recently. These Owls are destroying the 

 Nightingales, probably other night warblers. 

 25 April, 1916. There is a pair of Little Owls 

 and has been all the winter at South Down 

 Farm, Ringstead. They are very confiding 

 and look in the window. Last Sunday week, 

 Mr. Blinn, a baker, of Weymouth, took one in 

 his hand." 



25th April, 1916. "I can see Mr. Jesty, 

 jun., for date. I heard yesterday that Keeper 

 Hicks (Middleton Estate, Bradford Peverell) 

 shot one eighteen months ago. A man working 

 on the Park Farm at Hooke has seen them. 

 They occupied a hole in a stump and frequently 

 pitched on a wall. He said he could have 

 caught them, they were not a bit shy. Re- 

 specting the destruction of the Nightingales, 

 Howard Sanders, in his Manual of British Birds, 

 says they destroy Thrushes. Nearly every 

 little cover about these parts had Nightingales 

 the year before last ; but last summer there was 

 scarcely a pair here. My son, who is in practice 

 at Wrexham and keen on observing birds, tells 

 me the Little Owl is rapidly spreading and 

 destroying the Nightingale ; and I have been 

 told by keepers that they are vastly more 

 scarce; some kind of owl probably killed them." 



Feb. 20 Close to the old pond in Break Heart Lane, 

 Poole, I saw a Carine noctua fly out of an ivied 

 tree. (E.H.C.) 



July 30 Five seen at Flowers Barrow, East Lulworth. 

 In connection with which it might be noted that 

 small songsters are much scarcer in that neigh- 



