54 LITTLE OWL. 



in 1768 in Pennant's British Zoology (i.. p. 160) where it is said 

 to be "very rare in England; it is sometimes found in Yorkshire." 

 I suspect this is the authority from which Dr. John Berkenhout 

 obtained the information for his Synopsis of the Natural 

 History of Great Britain (1778), in which this species is described 

 as having occurred in Yorkshire. Doubtless also Pennant's book 

 is the source whence Mr. C. Fothergill derived the statement, 

 given in his Ornithologia Britannica, 1799, that it is "extremely 

 rare in this kingdom, chiefly found in Yorkshire." 



In 1828 Mr. Leyland of Halifax published a list of the 

 birds occurring around that town, wherein he mentions under 

 the head of Strix passerma, Little Owl — "I have reason to 

 believe that this species has been met with here; it has not 

 however fallen under my own observation." The first edition of 

 Yarrell's unrivalled work on British birds, published in 1843, 

 contains a statement that the Little Owl has occurred in York- 

 shire, and this is reiterated in the fourth edition now publishing. 



The " little earless owl" is included in a list of the birds 

 which had been observed in Walton Park by the late Mr. Charles 

 Waterton, and published in 1866, after his death, by Dr. Hobson. 

 With regard to this, it should be remembered that in the year 

 1842 Waterton purchased a dozen birds of this species at Rome; 

 five of them survived the journey and were liberated in Walton 

 Park.* 



* Under the heading of ' ' Flight of ' Little Owls ' in Yorkshire " the 

 following appeared in Neville Wood's Naturalist (1838, p. 168) — " Mr. Rudston 

 Read informs us that, some time since, from twenty to thirty ' Little Owls ' 

 were seen in a gorse cover belonging to P. Davies Cooke, Esq., of Owston 

 Hall, near Doncaster. Mr. Read's informant was well acquainted with all the 

 common British species of owl, and stated positively that the Owston birds 

 belonged to none of these. Unfortunately none of these ' Little Owls ' were 

 preserved. — Ed. " 



Trans. Y.N.U., 1879 (pub. 1880). Series B 



