OCCASIONAL NOTES. 255 
About seventeen years ago the peculiar cry first attracted the notice of a 
relative of mine living in a house adjoining the grounds above mentioned. 
The younger members of the family called my uncle’s attention to the 
circumstance, and he, after having heard it, took a peculiar pleasure in 
what he was wont to consider one of the curiosities of Howth. I am well 
aware that Sir William Jardine is often quoted as having shot a White Owl 
in the act of hooting; but the almost universal opinion of ornithologists is 
against him, nor have I been able to discover the original passage con- 
taining his statement. Further I do not think the White Owl could have 
spontaneously developed a hooting cry, unless, as Mr. Waterton suggests 
when criticising Sir William Jardine, it had been in the habit of hearing 
and imitating the hooting Owl. I may add that I am well acquainted with 
the Long-eared Owl and the White Owl, our only two resident species, and 
have never heard them utter a note in the least resembling the cry to which 
I have so carefully listened at Howth. As I have never heard the Tawny 
Owl in England, however, I should be glad to learn if any of your readers 
have heard the doubly repeated “ tu whit, tu whit,” with a prolonged “00,” 
—the latter sometimes repeated also,—to proceed from any Owl except the 
Tawny.—H. Caicuester Hart (Dublin). 
(The late Sir William Jardine is not the only naturalist who has 
testified to the occasional “‘ hooting” of the Barn Owl. See J. Colquhoun, 
‘The Moor and the Loch’ (ed. 1878, vol. ii., p. 58) and W. Boulton, Zool. 
1863, p. 8765. With regard to the alleged occurrence of the Tawny Owl 
in Ireland, it is observable that Smith, in his ‘ Ancient and Present State 
of the Co. and City of Cork,’ 1750, 2nd ed. 1774, describes as “ well known” 
the Brown Owl and the Grey Owl (p. 328), which we take to be the sexes 
of the ‘Tawny Owl, and states “ that they feed on Mice, and in the evening 
destroy Rabbits.” He includes the Barn Owl in his list as “ the Common 
Barn Owl, White Owl, or Church Owl.”—Eb.] 
BREEDING OF THE PocHARD AND Scaup In IRELAND. —I have often 
been on the point of sending a few notes on the breeding of these ducks in 
Treland, but delayed doing so in the hope of obtaining the eggs. As Mr. 
Gatcombe, however, has started the subject, I may say a few words thereon. 
Since I first handled a gun, when about twelve years old, Ihave been a 
good deal amongst wildfowl. For many years I lived within about four 
miles of Lough Neagh. When a boy, I used to shoot everything I saw, 
and at any time of the year: and one of the birds I obtained, almost every 
July, was the “flapper Red-head” or young Pochard—I should say from 
about the 20th onwards, but at that time I kept no diary. These Pochards 
consisted of young birds numbering from five to eight (I think I have seen 
ten), an old duck, and very often the old drake somewhere in the neighbour- 
hood, if not with the brood. My mode of attack used to be as follows ; — 
