LEAST EUROPEAN SPARROW OWL. 143 
this is the earliest bird in our forests; for the old poachers who £ out 
before daybreak to shoot the Capercaillie on the perch in the spring, 
say that the first call-note they hear in the wood is that of this bird. 
They also say that as soon as they hear this in the spring they reckon 
it will not be long before the Capercaillie begins to 'lek' or play. 
The note of this little Owl is a whistle, — one long loud 'whe-e-e,' 
like blowing into a key, then a number of finer notes, not so loud, 
quickly repeated — l Tiweet, tiweet, tiweet, tiweet.' I have heard it till 
this spring. One night early in March I slept at a wood-watcher's 
cabin in the forest, and my host came into my room about 5 a.m., and 
told me to come out and hear it. The bird was in a fir plantation 
about eight hundred or one thousand yards from the house, and I 
distinguished the note very plain. I stole up quietly and identified the 
bird. I had often heard the sound before, and always took it for 
Tengmalm's Owl; so to make quite sure I shot it. It must have a 
large range in Scandinavia, for as you know I shot a family of young 
flyers at Quickiock, and I do not believe that this place is its most 
southern range, although they have never been found breeding in Scania, 
(nor for the matter of that can I learn that any one has really got 
authentic eggs,) and are very rare or only accidental in Denmark. 
They are very bold and voracious for their size, and I have more 
than once seen them strike down a Titmouse in the forest. Although 
we know nothing for certain of their breeding habits, we may take it 
for granted that they lay more than two eggs, as stated by Temminck; 
for out of the family I saw at Quickiock, I obtained four specimens, 
and I am not certain but that one escaped." 
According to Temminck, this little Owl feeds upon mice, grass- 
hoppers, beetles, and lepidopterous insects. It builds in pine forests, 
or in the crevices of rocks, and lays two white eggs. 
An adult male in my possession has the head and nape brown, 
covered thickly with white spots; wings darker brown with the spots 
larger; shoulders white; cheeks and cere grey, with dark sinuous bands; 
side of neck white; throat same as head. Upper part of chest laterally 
brown with darker transverse bands. Upper part of centre of chest, 
abdomen and flanks, white with longitudinal more or less broad bands 
of dark hair brown. No facial disk. Tail brown, with four white 
bands and white tips; beak lead colour tipped with yellow; tarsi 
thickly feathered; the toes covered with small feathers; iris bright 
yellow. The sexes are alike in plumage but the female is rather larger. 
The young have the throat white, and the upper parts of chest en- 
tirely brown. Head, back, and wings, less spotted than in the adult. 
My figures, male and young, are from skins sent me by the late 
