PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 



striations, while the lower breast and Hank feathers shade towards the tip into white, 

 and have transverse vermiculated dusky bars and dusky shaft-streaks. The lap; 

 and toes an fe>Un>Bd and buff coloured. The tint generation of nestling down 

 feathers (protoptyles) are umbeliiform and buff coloured, the second generation 

 (mesoptyle) are semi-plumous, and crossed by dusky bars. The first teleoptyle 

 plumage is like that of the adults, [w. p. p.] 



a. Distribution. This is a widely distributed species, which inhabits the 

 greater part of Europe, Northern Africa, Northern Asia, and North America. The 

 r u ulurli inh. ilut- the l'.nti>h I -Irs 4jfo0fcU lu* { 1.. i. is found on tlir . out mrnt 

 of Europe to about lat. 63 N., as well as in North-western Africa and Northern 

 Ana, while allied forms are found in the Atlantic Isles, Abyssinia, and North 

 America. It is not rare as a resident in the woodlands of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 and has bred in the Orkneys and in the wooded islands of the Inner Hebrides, 

 while it has also occurred on the Outer Hebrides, and is said to have bred 

 on N. Uist, and on migration in the Shetlands, but does not breed there. 

 [r. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A resident and a winter visitor. There is little or no evi- 

 dence of migratory movement on the part of the British-breeding individuals, but a 

 considerable number of birds from Northern Europe pass the winter in Great Britain. 

 The species occurs in Shetland on migration, and " as an immigrant it is observed 

 annually on the coast in the vicinity of Spurn, and at the Teesmouth, but in very 

 limited numbers, and arrives there . . . usually in the latter days of November 

 or in December " (Nelson, B. of York*., 1907, p. 296). In the south of England an 

 increase in the numbers of this species becomes apparent in October ; the new- 

 comers " probably do not come direct from the Continent, but whether they are 

 British bred birds that have moved south, or whether they are continental birds 

 that have arrived on the east coast farther north than Kent, it is impossible at 

 present to say ; neither have we any evidence of a passage through the county 

 either to the west or the south " (Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 250). The immi- 

 gratory movements do not extend to Ireland, for although the species has been 

 obtained exceptionally on Rat hi in Island, and at the Tuskar, " there is little 

 evidence of seasonal migration " (cf. Ussher and Warren, R. of Ireland, 1900, p. 1 15). 

 In winter the species is to some extent gregarious (cf. Nelson, lot. cit. ; and others). 

 [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The usual breeding-place of this owl in the British 

 Isles is in the flattened nest of a crow, rook, magpie, jackdaw, sparrow-hawk, heron, 



