30- 



«j 



of July, 1869, at Lake Onega. Messrs. Salvin and Godman have lent us another young hird from 

 their collection, ohtained at Kop Vaud, in Norway, on the 6th of June, 1857 ; and this example, though 

 procured earlier in the year, is really further advanced than the one described by us. In our specimen 

 there are a few feathers coming through on the forehead which are tipped with white ; but in the 

 Norwegian bird the whole head is covered with white plumes, as in the adult, a few of the fluffy pale 

 brown feathers of the younger dress still remaining. The bars on the tail are not very distinct, and do 

 not extend right across. On the breast there is a tolerably distinct pectoral band ; and the bars on the 

 lower part of the body are broader and more distinct than in the other young bird. In both of them 

 the bill is dull yellow, inclining to horn-blue along the edge of the upper and the base of the lower 

 mandible. 



Obs. The European specimens which we have examined all agree very well with one another in the narrow 

 character of the pectoral bars, which are never so broad as in the American species, and have not the 

 same chestnut tinge. Mr. George Gillett has lent us a bird out of his collection, killed by him in . 

 Norway on the 1st of October, 1862. This specimen is of a paler brown than the others now before us, 

 has a pure white pectoral gorget, and has the bars of the breast slightly tinged with rufous brown, but 

 decidedly not so chestnut as in the American bird : the narrow character of the cross bars is likewise 

 fully preserved in Mr. Gillett's example. Mr. Gould, in his ' Birds of Great Britain/ seems to have 

 figured a somewhat similar specimen. 



The Hawk Owl is a northern species, being spread over the whole of Scandinavia and Siberia. 

 It visits more southern countries only in winter, and then very sparingly, but has not yet been 

 found on the shores of the Mediterranean. 



The discovery of the fact that the Hawk Owls of the Old and New Worlds are by no means 

 the same bird rendered it a point of great interest to discover to which species the examples 

 killed in Great Britain belonged ; and owing to the kindness of many friends, we have been able 

 to determine the question satisfactorily, with the exception of one single occurrence. This is the 

 Shetland bird mentioned by Mr. Saxby ; and it is with considerable regret that we have not been 

 favoured by this gentleman with an account of its capture or a sight of the specimen : while the 

 owners of the other British-killed examples cheerfully acceded to our request to inspect their 

 rarities, Mr. Saxby has not answered the letters which we have addressed to him, and therefore 

 we cannot give our readers any information respecting the Shetland bird. All that we know 

 about it is the record of Mr. Saxby himself in the Huddersfield 'Naturalist' (vol. ii. p. 158), 

 where he writes in his list of the 'Birds of Shetland': — "This rare species has been twice 

 observed. The skin of one of them, which was shot five years ago in the north of Unst, is now 

 in my possession." It seems likely, however, from the locality, that this bird would have proved 

 to be the European species ; and could the question have been settled, we should probably find 

 that both the European and American Hawk Owls have been obtained in Great Britain. All 

 the other occurrences refer to the American bird ; and a full notice will be found under that 

 heading. 



According to Collett it is very widely distributed through Norway, preferring the subalpine 

 region to the low country. On the west coast it is rare, but has been found at Bergen, at 

 Nordfjord, and Scendmser. On the fells it often extends into the birch region. Messrs. F. and P. 

 Godman, in their paper on the birds observed by them at Bodo during the spring and summer of 



