184 STRIGIDyE. 



in an exhausted state, on board a collier, a few miles off the 

 coast of Cornwall, in March, 1880. On the arrival of the 

 vessel at Waterford, whither she was bound, the bird was 

 given to a friend of Dr. Burkitt, with whom it lived for 

 a few weeks, and then came into his possession. Such was 

 the account given by the late Mr. William Thompson when 

 exhibiting the specimen at a meeting of the Zoological 

 Society in 1835, and published in its ' Proceedings ' for that 

 year (page 77). Four other examples have since occurred. 

 On a sunny afternoon in August, 1847, as recorded by Mr. 

 E. T. Higgins (Zool. p. 8029), a bird of this species was 

 shot near Yatton in Somersetshire while hawking for prey ; 

 and the specimen is now in Mr. Borrer's collection. Mr. 

 Saxby has forwarded the information that one was killed at 

 Scaa, in Unst, in the winter of 186061, and that its skin 

 came into his possession. Mr. Robert Gray states that 

 in December, 1868, he examined a very fine specimen 

 which was shot at Maryhill near Glasgow, and exhibited at a 

 meeting of the Natural History Society of that city, by Dr. 

 Dewar in whose collection it now is. Mr. Gray adds that 

 another example was taken in the flesh to a bird-staffer at 

 Greenock, in November, 1868, which was procured by Mr. 

 William Boyd, and is supposed to have been killed at no 

 great distance from that town. 



This species inhabits the pine forests of the more northern 

 parts of both hemispheres, and in the Old World its range 

 extends from Norway to the Amoor-country and Kamtchatka. 

 The precise southern limits of its breeding-district do not 

 seem to have been determined, but in Scandinavia they are 

 believed to be not lower than 57 N. lat. Thence it wanders 

 at times, and especially in winter, to Denmark, Belgium and 

 Germany, having been obtained so far southward as Metz in 

 Lorraine and Laxenburg in Austria. In America it is rarely 

 seen so far south as Pennsylvania, and there only in severe 

 winters. It does not inhabit either Iceland or Greenland. 



The most recent account of the habits of this species has 

 been supplied by travellers in the North of Europe. The 

 late Mr. Wolley, in a letter to the Editor, (part of which 



