254 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
the past winter there must have been an extensive migratory movement of 
Bustards over a considerable area, and it would be interesting to have 
details of any other examples that may have been seen or shot, and not 
hitherto recorded, in order to trace if possible the starting-point of the 
migrating flock or flocks, the route taken, and the probable destination. 
The cause of such a movement can be only faintly surmised.—J. K. 
HAkTING. 
ArrempreD Domestication or tHé Great Bustarp.—It may not 
be generally known that some years since the Acclimatisation Society of 
Paris offered prizes for the successful domestication of the Great Bustard, 
one of the conditions being that the birds should be proved to have laid and 
hatched eggs in confinement. In the ‘ Bulletin’ of the Society for 1861 
(p. 818) is an interesting communication from Mr. Althammer, giving the 
result of his attempts to domesticate this bird in the Tyrol. Three eggs 
were laid in August, 1860; the hen bird sat, and incubation lasted twenty- 
five days, at the end of which time one young one was hatched. A similar 
attempt was made in Warwickshire, in 1876, by Mr. F. Lythall, of Off 
church, near Leamington, who turned out some Bustards on his farm. On 
the 10th December in that year he wrote me word :—‘ The Bustards are 
tame, and eat out of the hand. ‘They are loose by day, and shut up at 
night. I think they pair, but they have not laid at present, or if they have, 
I have not found the eggs. ‘They associate with the fowls and turkeys, and 
take a fly occasionally.” I have had no further report since that date.— 
J. E. Harrine. 
SuprosepD OccuRRENCE OF THE Tawny Owl tn IrELAND.—When 
visiting some friends who reside upon the peninsula of Howth, near Dublin, 
I was informed that they had constantly heard some Owls hooting at night 
around the house. My first efforts to hear the birds were unsuccessful, 
owing apparently to these having been moonlight nights, when these Owls 
remain silent. A few days since, however, on a dark moonless night, 
JT listened for hours to the well-marked and unmistakable note, “ tu-whit, 
tu-who, 00,” which I believe is peculiar to the Tawny Owl. To make quite 
sure I have devoted two other nights to a careful observation of the bird’s 
cry, Which I heard at intervals from ten o'clock throughout the night, and 
as the sounds proceeded simultaneously from different quarters, there were 
no doubt several individuals concerned. The darkness of the night, and 
the apparent wariness of the birds, who were no doubt perfectly aware of 
my ambuscade, totally prevented my having a chance of obtaining a shot. 
T cannot but think that I have lit upon a colony of the Tawny Owl. I am 
aware that there is as yet no well-authenticated instance of its occurrence in 
Ireland. Further, that it is only recently that these birds have established 
themselves would appear highly probable from the following information :— 
rr a i a i ee, 
ig AEC tal tol eae pty 
