LITTLE OWL. 1 .', | 



bird will by this means entrap itself when endeavouring 

 to come out for the evening. It is much used on the 

 Continent as a decoy to entrap small birds." M. Vieillot 

 says it is seldom found in forests. 



The actions of a specimen kept for more than two years 

 by Mr. Leadbeater of Brewer-street were singularly gro- 

 tesque and amusing. 



Edwards drew his figure of this Little Owl, plate 228, 

 from a specimen caught alive in a chimney in London ; 

 and a second example was taken about the same time in 

 a similar situation, in the parish of Lambeth. Scopoli 

 says it builds in chimneys in Carniola Mr. Rennie, in a 

 note to a recent edition of White's Selborne, says, " I re- 

 collect seeing in Wiltshire the remains of a specimen of 

 the rare Sparrow-Owl, Strix passerina, nailed up to a barn- 

 door." Page 34. Two specimens, according to Dr. Moore, 

 have occurred in Devonshire : Montagu has also men- 

 tioned one in the same county. My friend Mr. T. C. 

 Eyton sent me a notice of one taken near Bristol ; Dr. 

 Hastings mentions one instance of the occurrence of this 

 bird in Worcestershire ; and Pennant speaks of one taken 

 in Flintshire. In a direction north of London, Mr. Hunt 

 of Norwich, in his British Ornithology, says, " We re- 

 collect a nest of these birds being taken at no great dis- 

 tance from Norwich ;" and Mr. Paget, in the Sketch of 

 the Natural History of Yarmouth, mentions two speci- 

 mens as well authenticated. The Little Owl has occurred 

 in Yorkshire ; and the woodcut in Mr. Bewick's work 

 was taken from a drawing of a specimen shot at Wid- 

 rington in Northumberland, in January 1813. M. Tem- 

 minck says this species does not go beyond the 55th de- 

 gree of North latitude. It is common in Germany and 

 Holland, visits Spain and the Morea, and, according to 

 Mr. Strickland, is common in the Levant. 



