138 LAP OWL. 
formed egg inside, through which the bullet had passed. The skin is 
now in England. The birds seemed on both occasions remarkably 
fearless. 
The eggs are smoother, and, as might be expected, considerably 
smaller than those of the Eagle Owl. The dimensions of the two in 
the last-mentioned nest are 2 in. by 1.6., and 2.1 in. by 1.65 in. 
At the Meeting of Scandinavian Naturalists in Christiana, last sum- 
mer, before I heard of these two nests having been found, I was able 
to announce that the Lap Owl generally makes its nest on the top of 
a stump. I had received several reliable accounts from different woods- 
men, but had never found a nest myself, or been able to get the eggs, 
which indeed have, I believe, hitherto been unknown to ornithologists. 
It appears that three is the ordinary number of eggs." 
In his Catalogue of Eggs, sold by Mr. Stevens, in 1858, Mr. ^Volley 
accounts for the proportionate smallness of the egg, by the fact that 
the size of the Lap Owl is very much made up by an unusual quantity of 
feathers, with which it is provided to protect it against the extreme cold 
of the region in which it lives. He also says the number of eggs is four. 
Mr. Wheelwright, in "Ten Years in Sweden," remarks, "The home 
of this rare and most beautiful of all the northern Owls is the very 
north of Scandinavia, from whence it rarely wanders, although I once 
obtained a very fine specimen killed in the winter in South Wermland. 
It is a true forest Owl, and is never seen higher up on the fells than 
the limits of the forests; nest generally on a pine or high fir, whether 
made by itself or not I do not know, but probably not." 
The male and female of the Lap Owl have the upper parts grey, 
with brown and reddish spots or streaks in zigzags, and others white 
on the scapularies. Under parts and under tail coverts whitish, slightly 
tinged with a reddish tint; sides of the chest are irregularly covered 
with numerous longitudinal brown spots and transverse zigzag lines or 
stripes; the legs and feet are striped in the same way with brown and 
white ; face streaked with brown upon a bluish grey ground, and en- 
circled by feathers variegated with black, white, or red; quill feathers 
crossed transversely with ash-coloured bands, variegated on the inner 
barbs by irregular lines of a reddish tint, and others of dark brown; 
towards the end of the quill feathers the colours are darker. Tail 
brown, crossed by wide ash-coloured bands, spotted and striated 
irregularly with brown; beak yellow, a great part of it hidden by the 
feathers of the face. 
The Lap Owl has been figured by Dr. Richardson in "Fauna Boreali 
Americana;" Audubon, "Birds of America;" Gould, "Birds of Europe;" 
and Nilsson, in his "Fauna Scandinavia." 
