1^4 THE BIRDS OF DEVON. 



lirown Owls are courageous parents, and very impatient of strangers 

 coming near their nest when the Owlets arc hatched. One of the 

 approaches to a friend's residence was Tirtually closed for a time, owing 

 1o a jtair of Lrown Owls, whose nest was placed in a fine elm by the 

 entrance gate. People passing through had to run the gauntlet of the 

 Owls, who came forth to attack and buffet them, so that they were afraid 

 to use this road. And avc know of a case where a youth had taken an 

 Owlet from the nest, and was showing it to his father in a farmyard, 

 when one of the old Owls suddenly attacked them both, scratching the 

 farmer severely about the face, and actually tearing out one of the eyes of 

 his son, so that he had to enter as patient in the local infirmary. 



One afternoon in the summer we watched a pair of Brown Owls making 

 numerous pounces from the lower branches of a fine elm into the rank 

 grass beneath ; they were evidently catching insects — tii)ul8e, we fancied — 

 with which they flew up into the tree, dro^jping again the next instant to 

 capture others. They made two or three descents a minute, and con- 

 tinued this amusement some little time. 



Mr. iJarnes, whose adventure with the Barn-Owls we have already 

 recorded, considered that the Tawny Owls furnished him a forecast of the 

 v»-ealher, and wrote : — "I have for years observed that Avhen the Owl is 

 nieny at early dawn we are pretty sure of a fine day. Also, if he is 

 merry at early evening, we are pretty siire of a fine quiet night. "While, 

 if tlie Owl breaks out with ' JJoo-hoo-7too-Too-vit' by day, and takes a 

 llight, stormy wcatlier is sure to pretty soon follow. These are sure and 

 invariable indications which I have observed for years."' 



Snowy Owl. Xfjcfea scandiaca (Linn.). 



An accidental visitor from the extreme T^orth, of very I'are occurrence. 



It can be only by an accident that this grand citcumpolar Owl is ever 

 diiven to this country, es])ccially so far south as Devonshire. The Kev. W. 

 S. Hore had a fine specimen which was captured by St. John's Lake, 

 Ilamoaze, Plymouth, in December 18IJ8, and brought in by a boatman to 

 tliL- shop of J'incombe, the PlynKmtli bird-stutfcr, while ^Mr. Hore happened 

 to be in his shop. ^Mr. Hore subsequently purchased the bird, and told us 

 that at the time this Owl was met with the weather Avas exceptionally 

 stormy, so much so that the Earl of Durham, on his return from Canada, 

 was detained for three days in the Sound in consc(]uence of the gale. 

 This specimen is mentioni d liy Dr. Moore as having been shot on Mill- 

 brodke Lakfi, and is probably the same as the one said to have been 

 knocked down with a stick by a boatman on the bank of the Biver Tamar 

 near St. Germans, in Cornwall, in ])ec. 18H8 (E. M., Bowe's Peramb. 

 Dartmoor, p. 233 ; J. C. B., Kat. Hist. S. Devon, p. 200 ; B. A . J., ' ^'atu- 

 ralist,' p. 4b). Dr. Couch recorded this bird as having been picked up dead 

 near Plymouth (Cornish Fauna, part ii. p. Tjl), Appendix). 



A few days before the occurrence of Mr. Here's specimen at Plymouth, 

 Mr. Thompson has recorded that a flock of Snowy Owls accompanied a 



