104 Strigidce. 



and tiresome to the listener. The colour of its plumage is 

 difficult to describe, each feather being mottled, speckled, barred, 

 and spotted, and pencilled with every shade of dark and pale 

 brown and gray ; and a remarkably pretty bird it is, and very 

 diminutive, its total length being little more than seven inches. 

 The head is furnished with two little tufts or ears, each tuft 

 containing about seven feathers. Its principal food consists of 

 insects of various kinds, but it will also occasionally prey on 

 mice and other small animals. In Malta, where it abounds 

 during the seasons of its migrations in February and September, 

 it is sold in great numbers in the market, and is considered by 

 the natives as excellent for the table.* The British Ornitho- 

 logical Committee doubt whether to derive the name Scops 

 from <r?coTgw, ' I look carefully,' which refers well enough to its 

 habit of staring; or from <rxwffrw, 'I mock/ in allusion to its 

 perpetual cry repeated all night long, to the dismay of the weary 

 listener. Thirty years ago I had but one instance to record of 

 its occurrence in Wiltshire, and that alas ! is now destroyed, 

 having been pulled to pieces by the grandchildren of its owner 

 it was killed nearly fifty years since in the south of the county, as 

 I learnt from the Rev. G. Marsh. Now, however, I have two more 

 instances, as recorded by Mr. Rawlence : one in that gentleman's 

 own collection, which was killed near Kingston Deverell ; and 

 the other shot by Mr. E. Rawlence in the spring of 1873, in 

 Wilton Park, and presented by him to the Earl of Pembroke. 

 It had attracted attention some time previously by its peculiar 

 and reiterated cry. It seems to have been almost frequently 

 met with of late in the New Forest, but it is not at home in 

 this country, and must feel sadly home-sick when it chances to 

 encounter the cold and wet and fogs of 'merrie England.' I 

 may add, that several other instances of its occurrence in various 

 parts of the county have reached me, but on examination the 

 species proves in all these cases to have been mistaken. In 

 France it is known as Hibou Scops, or, Petit Due ; in Germany, 

 as Kleine Ohreule; in Italy, as Asiolo ; in Spain, as Corneta 

 Ibis for 1864, p. 49. 



