64 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



THE HAWK OWL. 



SURNIA FUNEREA. 



IN December, 1863, I examined a very fine specimen of this 

 rare British bird, which was shot at Maryhill, near Glasgow, and 

 exhibited at a meeting of the Natural History Society by Dr 

 Dewar, in whose collection it now remains; it was seen haunting 

 a range of stables for some nights before it was killed. A second 

 specimen was taken in the flesh to the shop of a bird-stuffer in 

 Greenock, about the 20th November, 1868, and is supposed to 

 have been killed at no great distance from that town. It was 

 procured by William Boyd, Esq., who forwarded it to me for 

 exhibition at a meeting of the Natural History Society of Glasgow. 



I know of no other instance of the occurrence of this species in 

 any part of Scotland except the Shetland islands, where, accord- 

 ing to Dr Saxby, it has been twice observed. The skin of one 

 shot in the north of Unst in 1860, is now in that gentleman's 

 collection. 



Eegarding the habits of this somewhat interesting species, the 

 late Sir John Richardson has given a very good account in his 

 admirable work on the birds of the northern parts of British 

 America. (See Fauna Bor. Amer., page 92). 



TENGMALM'S OWL. 



NOCTUA TENGMALMI. 



THIS Owl one of the rarer species found in Britain appears 

 to have been met with in three instances only north of the 

 Tweed; one having been shot by Mr Dunbar in an old ruined 

 factory at Spinningdale, in Sutherlandshire, in May, 1847; another 

 killed at Melsetter, in Orkney, in 1851, as mentioned in a manu- 

 script note in Baikie and Heddle's Fauna Orcadensis, by one 

 of the authors; and the third captured on Cramond island, 

 Firth of Forth, in December, 1860. For a notice of the occur- 

 rence of the last-mentioned bird, I am indebted to Dr Smith of 

 Edinburgh, who exhibited the specimen (a female) at a meeting 

 of the Royal Physical Society, on 23d January, 1861. It was 

 caught alive by a man named Lumley, during a severe snow-storm. 



