280 THE SLAG-UGGLA. 



eagle owl, or the snowy owl, is pretty much confined, as the 

 name would denote, to the northern parts of Scandinavia, 

 where it, by all accounts, is tolerably common. Once in a 

 time, these birds are met with in the more southern 

 portion of the peninsula. Some years ago, indeed, Count 

 Corfitz Beckfriis shot one, he told me, on his estate of 

 Fiholm, in the province of Sodermanland ; and a second 

 was killed in the same neighbourhood. 



Northern ornithologists appear to be but little acquainted 

 with the habits of the Lapp-Uggla, which circumstance is 

 somewhat singular, as specimens shot in Scandinavia are 

 common in the museums. In that of Gothenburg, if I 

 mistake not, there are no fewer than four. All the in- 

 formation we possess about this bird, besides its scientific 

 description, is that furnished by M. Malm, who says that 

 " it hunts as well by day as by night, and is not in any 

 manner shy ; and that it lives almost altogether upon lem- 

 mings and rats." 



The Slag-Uggla (Strix liturata, Thunb.) This owl 

 is chiefly confined to the more northern parts of the 

 peninsula. It has been found, however, in Wermeland, and 

 it may be still lower down. As with the Lapp-Uggla, 

 Swedish naturalists know little about this bird. M. Malm 

 merely tells us, that " its places of resort and manner of 

 living are very similar to those of the Lapp-Uggla, but 

 it is more shy, and sees better during the day than that 

 bird ;" and Nilsson, that " it is believed to make its nest 

 in hollow trees, and to lay from three to four white eggs." 



Minervas Uggla, or Minerva's Owl (Strix noctua, Retz. & 

 Licht.) Though this bird is included in the Scandinavian 

 fauna, it can hardly be said to belong to it; for only a 



