476 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
half the egg-shell still attached to it. On the morning of June 
21st I saw the third young one quite hatched. All three nestlings 
had their eyes closed. The first one, hatched on the 17th, and 
now four days old, was, I found, much improved, showing a 
remarkable difference in size on comparison with the others. 
On June 23rd, the three young, being well nourished, were 
rapidly increasing in proportions ; the fourth egg (probably the 
first one laid) I found was addled, so I removed it, blowing it 
for my cabinet. Seven or eight sparrows, or food in proportion 
to this bulk, was now daily consumed by the family. The young 
were still unable to open their eyes, lying in their nest, and 
asleep like little pigs, very fat and plump. Having to leave 
home for a time on business, my diary of daily events became 
interrupted, and therefore does not contain any details relating 
to the growth and development of the first plumage in July; 
and the assumption of the second plumage in October, which 
took place at the same time as that of the parent birds, and 
which are scarcely distinguishable from each other. Not having 
to work for their daily sustenance they became very fat, the 
parent birds weighing 8} oz. and 10 oz. respectively, the three 
young being 74, 8, and 8 oz. Six ounces is said to be the 
weight of this bird in a state of nature. The above is the weight 
of the living birds as scaled by myself on the 31st of December. 
A female adult bird (one of my odd ones), having died on Noy. 
24th, weighed 10 ozs. This, I believe, is the first occasion on 
which this Little Owl has bred and successfully reared its young 
to maturity in confinement in England. I hope to record some 
further proceedings on the part of my pets in my next notes. 
In the stomach of an adult female Short-Eared Owl, killed 
27th October, 1884, I found the feathers, bones, and other 
remains of a young Thrush, including the gizzard, which, having 
been swallowed whole, was unaffected by the gastric juice. On 
October 29th I received four Long-EKared Owls, three males and 
a female; the former weighed respectively 8 oz. 8 dr., 8 oz. 
10 dr., and 9 oz.; the female, 10 oz. Two of their stomachs 
were crammed with the bones and fur of Field Voles; in that of 
another were portions of the skulls of seven Voles, and a mass 
of refuse sufficient to form nearly a dozen pellets of the size 
usually cast up. 
An immature female Black Redstart, killed at Blakeney 22nd 
