PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 63 



except Tengmalm's, have been seen alive in England 

 before ; certainly S. uralense has not. The hawk owls fly 

 to hand, and feed thereon. I am quite certain that they 

 might be trained to take young rabbits and rats." * 



"August igth, 1888. 



" These Lapps were evidently taken too young from 

 the nests, and no doubt were hustled and crowded in 

 panniers on their journey by pony and boat to Helsing- 

 fors from the breeding-place. I believe that you will 

 find a brail very useful ; we put brails on the whole lot 

 when they first arrived, and all the survivors are very 

 much improved.* My experience is that all these wood 

 owls eat but little at a meal, comparatively speaking, but 

 require a good deal of food before the first moult. I 

 have a very rare and beautiful large wood owl from 

 Nepaul (<S. yiewarensi] that came to me in the down three 

 years ago, and is now one of the finest birds that I ever 

 saw in captivity. During the first months of his sojourn 

 here he would devour a whole full-grown rabbit during 

 the twenty-four hours, but never more than two or three 

 mouthfuls at a time ; now a small, young rabbit, or two 

 or three little roach suffice him for the day, and I 

 notice much the same thing with the downy owl (S. 

 perspicillatum) from S. America." 2 



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



2 To the same. 



* A brail is a strip of leather with which falconers confine one wing 

 of a hawk so that it cannot be moved. 



