LITTLE OWL. 59 



NOCTUA PASSERINA (Gmelin). 

 LITTLE OWL. 



I know of but two instances of the occurrence of 

 the Little Owl in Norfolk of late years; one taken 

 alive at Easton in 1846, by Mr. Gurney's keeper, 

 which lived in confinement till December, 1848, having 

 laid eggs in the previous spring ; and an adult male, 

 also taken alive on board a fishing smack about ten 

 miles off Yarmouth, on the 6th of February, 1862. 

 This specimen, less fortunate than its predecessor, 

 when brought to a bird-stuffer in this city, showed 

 evident symptoms, from its ragged and dirty plumage, 

 of having died in some small cage or box, where 

 it had refused all nourishment in its efforts to 

 escape. Previous notices of this species appear to 

 be limited to the following statement by Mr. Hunt, 

 in his " British Ornithology" : " We recollect a nest of 

 these birds being taken at no great distance from Nor- 

 wich ;" the record of one, in Mr. Lombe's notes, as killed 

 at Blofield in 1824, and the two instances referred to 

 by the Messrs. Pagefc of its having been taken near 

 Yarmouth. As I have alluded to the fact of the eagle 

 owl (Bubo maximus) having bred in confinement in this 

 county, I will here quote from the " Zoologist," p. 3207, 

 a very interesting account, by Mr. J. H. Gurney, of 

 the nesting of this little owl in that gentleman's aviary 

 when residing at Easton, near Norwich, the same 

 village in which the larger species above-mentioned 

 first reared their young : " A pair of passerine owls, 

 which I had in confinement, nested this spring (1851) 

 in a small covered box, which was placed in a corner of 

 their cage. They laid four eggs about the middle of 

 i 2 



