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Tyzenhauza obtained it in Lithuania; and Mr. Taczanowski states (Bull. Soc. Zool. 1877, p. 137) 

 that Mr. Wankowicz met with it in the forests of Borysow, and subsequently it was seen in the 

 Grodno Government close to the Polish frontiers. In December 1872 one was shot between 

 Chelm and Krasnystaw, in the Lublin Government, and is now in the Warsaw Museum. It is 

 included in Naumann's Naturg. Vog. Deutschl. ; and he says (xiii. p. 186) that " it straggles over 

 to Prussia, and is stated to have occurred several times near Gumbinnen. It has even occurred, 

 it is said, in Northern Germany." Gloger, however, writes (Naturg. Vog. Eur. i. p. Ill) that 

 one was obtained in the district of Gumbinnen, in Prussia, in the autumn of 1832. Elsewhere 

 in Europe, so far as I can ascertain, it has not been obtained. It is found in Northern Asia ; but 

 there it is also of rare occurrence. Neither Von Middendorff nor Von Schrenck met with this 

 Owl ; but Dr. Eadde, who says that it is the rarest species in South-east Siberia, obtained one early 

 in November 1858 in the Bureja Mountains, which, he adds, agreed closely with European 

 examples. Dr. Dybowski writes (J. f. O. 1872, p. 350), it is "not common; but it is to be 

 seen almost in every valley in summer as well as in autumn. It breeds in the forests of the 

 Pachabicha and Muryn valley, from which place we obtained young ones ; the nest itself we 

 could not detect. The specimens obtained are from the vicinity of Irkutsk." Dr. Finsch on his 

 journey to Siberia obtained two young birds on the river Ob, one of which he has lent to me to 

 figure. 



The first published notice of the breeding-habits of the present species appears to be that 

 communicated by Mr. C. G. Lowenhjelm, who states (K. Vet. Ak. Handl. 1843, p. 389) that " the 

 nest was in a dense pine-wood on a stump about three ells high, in the top of which a hollow had 

 been formed by the wood having rotted. In the nest was one white egg about the size of that 

 of the Eagle-Owl ; and at the foot of the stump another egg was on some moss, quite uninjured." 

 Subsequently Mr. Wolley obtained its eggs in Kemi Lappmark in 1856, and says (Ooth. Wolleyana, 

 p. 173) that "the nest was on the top of a broken trunk of a Scotch fir, the main part of which 

 hung down ; but from the description Piety thinks there was some old nest there. He does not 

 remember seeing any nest made. It was not high up, some two fathoms perhaps; but those 

 which he has seen before were not more than one fathom high. The top of the tree where it 

 was broken off, was not level, but it had a great splinter on one side. The birds are very bold at 

 the nest, and the cry of the cock attracts people to the nest. The cry is three notes drawn out, 

 the first hardest, the second lighter and short, the third lightest and longest of all — i HJJ, su, 

 hu-u-u.'" Another nest, taken at Muoniovara on the 5th April 1857, was, he adds, "made of 

 sticks and all kinds of stuff inside, about three fathoms and a half high up in a large Scotch fir, 

 where it divided into several great forks. It was not like a new nest ;" and he describes it as 

 about two feet in thickness. 



I possess several eggs of this Owl received from Mr. Wolley's collectors in Lapland, which 

 are pure white, and resemble the eggs of the Snowy Owl, but appear a trifle less smooth on the 

 surface of the shell. In size they vary from 2^- by lf^ to 2^j by lf$ inch. 



Eetzius (I. c.) appears to have been the first to publish a description of the present species 

 under the name of Strix lapjponica ; but he refers to Sparrman as the original describer of the 

 species, and gives as his reference " Mus. Carls, fasc. 5. tab.;" but so far as I can ascertain, no 

 fasciculus 5 of that work was ever published, and the earliest plate of this Owl I can find is that 



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