So British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



The female is considerably larger than the male, and is less white. Length 

 of male twenty-three inches ; that of female twenty-six inches. 



Few naturalists have seen the nestlings which are said to be covered with 

 sooty black down, with browTiish tips. 



There is much variation in the pluniage, and Seebohm considers there are 

 two races, one whiter, and the other darker. Two verj^ white examples in the 

 writer's collection were received by him from opposite sides of N. America, one 

 from Canada, the other from Oregon. 



Family— S TRIGID^. 



European Hawk-Owl. 



Surnia ulula, Linn. 



American Hawk-Owl. 



Surnia funerea, LiNN. 



THE Hawk- Owl is a very singular and interesting species that inhabits the 

 pine forests of the northern parts of the Old and New World. The 

 American bird is darker in plumage and more broadly barred than the one found 

 in the Palsearctic region, but the two are bracketed together above, as they are 

 merely local races of the same species. Some six or seven examples have occurred 

 in the British Isles, the majority of them belonged to the darker American race. 

 The first was captured off the Cornish coast in March, 1830, and carried to Ireland. 

 One was shot near Yatton, in Somerset, while flying about on a bright afternoon 

 in August, 1847 ; one at Unst, in the Shetland Isles, in the winter of 1860-61 ; 

 two have been obtained near the Clyde, in Scotland, one December, 1863, the 

 other November, 1868 ; another was seen on wing at Musburj^ in South Devon, 

 on an afternoon at the end of August, in 1869; and one, believed to be the only 

 example that has been secured in this country of the paler European form, was 

 obtained near Amesbury, in Wilts. As this Owl is resident in Norway, more 



