i6 



" I am very anxious to have some of the marsh owls 

 alive ; they ought to be breeding now." 



" May igth, 1892. 



" I have only been out of the house once since October 

 last. I am told that most of our spring birds are here in 

 very unusual numbers, and most of them earlier than usual. 

 A pair, if not two, of little owls have taken their young 

 off safely at no great distance. We have a great many 

 hawfinches nesting close to the house, and a nest of long- 

 eared owl and snipe (both deserted) have been found for 

 the first time in my recollection in this immediate 

 neighbourhood." l 



"May 2isf, 1892. 



" I have not heard recently ot any little owls * at a 

 distance, and of no nests at more than two miles from this. 

 I am told of two nests of tawny owls with the young still in 

 them, and we have seven or eight barn owls sitting. Can 

 you spare me any young long-eared ? I want to establish 

 them at large here. 



" A nest of little woodpecker was found on our lawn 

 yesterday ; the bird is common enough, but the nest is very 

 hard to find. A kite was identified on competent authority 

 about sixteen miles from us on the 2nd, and I hear of 



1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. 



* The Little Owl (Athene noctua), a Continental species. Lord 

 Lilford [see later] liberated at different times many of these birds. 



