EAGLE OWL AND SCOPS OWL. 



51 



In July, 1876, an Eagle Owl was captured on Rombalds 

 Moor, above Ilkley, by two farm servants; the bird being quite 

 unable to fly, owing to its plumage being "storm soaked." This 

 bird is now kept alive in a small vivarium at Roundhay Park, 

 Leeds, along with two specimens said to have been taken from a 

 nest near Aberdeen ! 



The latest occurrence was at Scarborough, on the 30th of 

 October, 1879, after a very heavy gale from the N.E. Mr. A. 

 Roberts, to whom I am indebted for the information, was on his 

 way to the museum at one o'clock p.m., when he was startled by 

 seeing a very large Eagle Owl flying quite low in one of the back 

 streets, which on arriving within ten yards of him rose with difficulty 

 over the cottages and disappeared. The bird was also seen 

 immediately afterwards by Mr. Robert Champley to alight in 

 Lord Londesborough's grounds. 



SCOPS GIU {Scopoli). 

 Scops Owl. 



A rare and accidental visitant. 



The first instances of the occurrence of this beautiful little 

 owl in Britain were announced from Yorkshire by Mr, Foljambe, 

 of Osberton, an accurate ornithologist, who assured Colonel 

 Montagu that a specimen in his possession had, he believed, been 

 shot in this county, and that Mr. Charles Fothergill of York had 

 another shot in the spring of 1805 near Wetherby. 



According to Mr. Thomas Allis (1844) this bird had been met 

 with at Womersley, in the West Riding, and the Rev. F. O. Morris 

 was his authority for the mention of a pair of old and a pair of young 

 birds shot some years before at Ripley, near Harrogate, where Mr. 

 William Stubbs, the Ripon taxidermist, found them nailed up and 

 quite spoilt by a fortnight's exposure. The gamekeeper of Sir 



