334 MR. R. B. SHARPE ON A HAWK-OWL. [-A-pf. 4, 



inde 4 Evangeliste.' Internal evidence fails to show more than 

 that it did not appear before 1643, occurrences in which year are 

 several times mentioned in its pages (e. g. pp. 261 and 345) ; and on 

 a fly-leaf are the initials ' R. L.' and the date ' 1 676.' Now I am 

 informed by Mr. Bradshaw, the Librarian of the University of Cam- 

 bridge, that A. de Wees is known to have published an edition of 

 this work (which I should have said is a translation and amplifi- 

 cation of Pliny's Natural History) in 1662, the same year that 

 Wolfgangh did. But the volume I have here is not that edition, 

 and must therefore be either an earlier or a later one. I am inclined 

 to believe the former, (1) because, as I have already said, no year 

 later than 1643 is mentioned in it, and (2) because the figure of the 

 Dodo which it contains (at p. 3/4) is unquestionably of cognate 

 origin with that given in the rare edition of Bontekoe's Voyage 

 (p. 7), which I now exhibit. This edition of Bontekoe is thought 

 by Strickland * to have been published " a year or two " subse- 

 quently to 1646. Comparing the two figures now before you, I 

 think you will admit that the copper-plate of the Pliny has not been 

 copied from the woodcut of the Bontekoe, but the woodcut from the 

 copper-plate ; and if so, the impression in Mr. Hooper's Plinyfis the 

 earliest we yet know of this very singular figure. It is unfortunate 

 that the fate of Broderip's copy is unknown to me ; nor am I aware 

 of the existence of a second copy of that (Wolfgangh's) edition. 

 Both in the title-page and in the text there are many typographical 

 diiferences between the two editions, if the extracts reprinted in our 

 'Transactions' may be trusted ; but these differences seem to have 

 no scientific interest, however valuable they may be to bibliographers, 

 and I will not trouble you with them." 



Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, F.Z.S., exhibited a specimen of a Hawk- 

 Owl {Surnia ulula), belonging to Mr. James Rawlence, of Bulbridge- 

 within-Salisbury. It was shot by a Mr. Long several years ago near 

 Amesbur}', in Wiltshire, and was given by him to Mr. Rawlence, in 

 whose collection it remained till Mr. Mansell-Pleydell happened to 

 see it, and brought it to London for identification. The specimen was 

 very interesting as being the first British-killed specimen of the true 

 Swedish Surnia ulula. It would be seen, on reference to the ' Birds 

 of Europe,' that all the specimens of Hawk-Owls hitherto killed in 

 Great Britain have belonged to the American form, Surnia funerea, 

 with the exception of one bird shot in Shetland, which was probablv 

 the Swedish bird ; this, however, could not be ascertained, as the 



* ' The Dodo ' &c. p. 63. 



t The full title of the volume is C. PLINI SECUNDI Des wydt-vermaerden 

 Natuur-kondigers vyf Boecken. Handelende van de Nature, I. Van de Menschen. 

 II. Van de viervoetige en kruypende Dieren. III. Van de Vogelen. IV. Van 

 de klejne Beestjes of Ongedierten. V. Van de Vissehen, Oesters, Kreeften, &c. 

 Hier zijn by-gevoeght de Schriften van verscheyden andere oude Autheuren 

 de Natuur der Dieren aengaende. En nu in desen laetsten Druck wel het 

 vierde part vermeerdert, uyt verscheyden nieuwe Scbryvers en eygen ondervin- 

 dinge : en met veel kopere Platen vercjiert. t'AMSTEEDAM. By Abraham en 

 Jan de Wees. Boek-verkoopers / inde 4 Evangeliste. 



