Little Owl 115 



summer (and for nearly three months I saw no candle and barely 

 saw twilight in those charming countries) night and day are 

 practically very much alike, and neither birds nor men seem to 

 know when to work and when to sleep. Such, at all events, was 

 the case with travellers, though most of them preferred to turn 

 night into day in their long drives through the country, in order 

 to avoid the torment (which none but those who have expe- 

 rienced it can in the least appreciate) inflicted by the hateful 

 mosquito, more fierce, more venomous, more persevering, and of 

 a larger size, as I believe, in northern Europe, than I have ever 

 experienced it in Spain, or Portugal, or Italy, or other southern 

 lands. 



Kennie, in his edition of ' White's Selborne,' says, ' I recollect 

 seeing in Wiltshire the remains of a specimen of the rare Sparrow 

 Owl, Strix passerina, nailed up to a barn-door ;' but more recently 

 another was killed in the neighbourhood of Chippenham in 1838, 

 and is now in Mr. Marsh's collection at Salisbury. Still more 

 recently (though I have not the exact date) one was killed at 

 Draycot, and came into the collection of Colonel Ward, then 

 living at Castle House, Calne, in whose possession it now is. And 

 quite lately Lord Arundel informs me that he has twice seen a 

 small owl but whether the 'Little' or 'Tengmalms Owl' he 

 could not determine in the shrubbery, and once in the thick 

 wood near the house at Wardour, where Mr. Tyndall Powell, 

 while pheasant shooting, also saw it in January of this year 

 (1887), when, disturbed by the beaters, it flew out of some laurel 

 bushes just before him. 



This closes the list of the owls found in this county, and with 

 the owls is concluded the account of the first division or Order, 

 the Birds of Prey. 



82 



