162 ACCIPITRES. 



also bring the northern birds not generally visitants of our 

 shores. When it conies, it perches on the top of a wreath, 

 or on some stick or other point jutting out of the snow, and 

 as it is not very unlike a lump of snow itself, it causes but 

 little alarm in the birds, and so captures them with ease. It 

 feeds indiscriminately on game which it kills, and on carrion ; 

 and as those storms which bring the snowy owl into places 

 where it is not usually found, in general prove fatal to num- 

 bers of birds and small quadrupeds, one of the functions 

 which it performs is that of scavenger, 



THE LITTLE OWL (Strix passerino). 



A figure of thisjowl is given on the plate at page 93, imme- 

 mediately under that of the great-eared owl, and on twice as 

 large a scale in the lineal dimensions, that is, on a scale of 

 one third of the natural size in line. 



The little owl is only about seven inches long and fourteen 

 in the stretch of the wing. It is rarely seen in England, and 

 if it breeds in the country its nest has not hitherto been met 

 with. When seen, it is generally in the autumn, so that it 

 may be blown across in the course of its autumnal migration, 

 but it is worthy of remark, that it is not confined to the 

 mere verge of the eastern sea, as European birds generally 

 are when they drift, but has been noticed also on the west 

 and south-west. The little owl resorts to the vicinity of 

 human dwellings, and nestles, and generally hides itself for 

 the day, in holes of old walls. It is an industrious and suc- 

 cessful mouser, and though its wings are not very long, it is 

 more quick in the use of them than some of the larger 

 species. Its flight is not confined to the twilight, for though 

 that be the time at which it is most successful in mousing, it 

 hawks especially on dark and cloudy days, during which it 

 may be seen in pursuit of swallows, opposing a direct flight 



