LITTLE-OWL 419 



feet of the snowy-owl. In all the owls there are always more or leas 

 feathers down to the claws, though in some this fonHmrllHJ is 

 reduced almost to the condition of bristles. In others, like the long 

 and shorteared-owls and the eagle-owls, for example, the feathering 

 is thick and long, entirely concealing the skin. The snowy-owl has 

 carried this feathering a step further, since the soles also are covered. 

 This appears to be due to the needs of the environment, since the 

 Polar bear and the ptarmigan, which also inhabit Arctic regions or 

 hi^h elevations of perpetual snow, show a similar modification. 



As touching the cries of the snowy-owl, but little is to be said, 

 though it is interesting to note that, though a near relation of the 

 eagle-owl, it does not appear to utter that strange, thick, almost 

 husky " o-ooo " which is so characteristic of the eagle-owl. It is said, 

 when on the wing, to utter a loud " krau-au" repeated three or four 

 times, and only when excited; while at times, and similarly when 

 excited, it gives vent to a loud cry which has been said to resemble 

 "rick, rick, rick," while other observers have attributed to it a low, 

 whining wail. 



LITTLE-OWL 



Of the little-owl it is possible many new observations will be made 

 in this country, for while voluntarily it but rarely visits us, numbers 

 have been turned loose during recent years, notably by the late Lord 

 Lilford in Northamptonshire, the Hon. Walter Rothschild at Tring, 

 Hertfordshire, and in Cambridgeshire, and by Mr. E. G. B. Meade- 

 Waldo near Edenbridge in Kent 1 These have not only thriven in 

 these respective centres, but they have also spread over a large area, 

 But this attempt at introducing the little-owl among us is by no means 

 new, for Waterloo, so long ago as 1843, had made the same experiment 

 in Yorkshire, though these birds would seem to have disappeared. 



1 An admirable summary, much too long to giro here, of these introductions and the spread 

 of this bird appeared in British Birdt, vol. L, 1807, p. 885. 



VOL. II. 3 H 



