304 



1867, write as follows : — "The Hawk Owl appeared to be not uncommon about Kop Vaud. In 

 one day's walk through these forests we came across three different broods of young, some of 

 which we shot. We saw a great quantity of Lemmings in this quarter, which may have been 

 the reason of this Owl being so common that season. We also saw the Hawk Owl, though 

 rarely, in the neighbourhood of Bodo." Sundevall writes that the true home of the present bird 

 is the birch and fir region, and it only occurs in Southern and Central Sweden in autumn and 

 winter. Nilsson observes that it inhabits the subalpine woods in Northern Sweden and Norway. 

 In Herjeadalen, Dalecarlia, Northern Wermland, &c. it is tolerably numerous. It has the 

 same range as the Siberian Jay, namely the upper portion of the conifer region on the fell-sides, 

 and does not extend above the boundary of the forest region, and is there met with in July in 

 families of five or six, of which three or four are young of the year. In the autumn (September 

 and October) and during the winter it ranges far south, and is even met with, though rarely, in 

 the woods and gardens of Skane. Pastor Wallengren says that a stray pair or two breed in the 

 pine-woods in Northern Skane. Sommerfelt notices it from the Varanger Fjord ; and Messrs. 

 Wheelwright and Wolley both record it as common in Lapland. Von Wright also states that it 

 is plentiful all over Finland. Kjserbolling says that it occasionally visits Denmark in the 

 winter ; and our friend Mr. A. Benzon informs us that it occasionally straggles into that country, 

 but he himself has never observed it there. 



Meyer records it as rare in Livonia ; but in parts of Northern Germany it is stated by 

 Borggreve to be not uncommon in the winter, and is said to have nested in East Prussia. 

 According to Tobias it is not rare in the winter in Oberlausitz, and is occasionally procured in 

 Westphalia, Hanover, and on the Mosel. De Selys-Longchamps mentions the capture of a 

 single bird of this species near Tournay in 1830; and M. Holandre notices three seen together 

 near Metz in the summer of 1834. Krcener, in his list of the birds found in Alsace and the 

 Vosges, says that it appears accidentally in Alsace. One specimen was killed in 1842 in the 

 forest of Brumath by M. Zill, and is now in the Strasbourg Museum, where Mr. J. H. Gurney, 

 jun., tells us he has seen it. It has also been killed near Laxenburg, in Austria. In Poland, 

 according to our friend Dr. L. Taczanowski, " it is rare, only appearing in certain winters, and 

 he has seen examples procured in various parts of the country. Professor Kessler, in his ' Fauna 

 of Kiew,' states that one was procured near that town late in November 1851. According to 

 Professor Bogdanoff it is very common in autumn and winter near Kazan, wdiere it is even met 

 with in the small groves ; but it has not been ascertained if it breeds there. In winter it feeds 

 on small birds (Pyrrhula rubicilla, Emheriza citrinella, &c.) and mice." The Strickland collec- 

 tion contains a specimen from the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg ; and our friend Mr. 

 Sabanaeff informs us that it is usually seen in Central Russia during migration, but it breeds 

 in the Government of Jarostaf, near Moscow, and even in the district of Kashir, in the 

 Government of Tula. It breeds exclusively in the birch-forests. Pallas says that it is found 

 plentifully throughout Eussia, especially the eastern portion, being particularly abundant near 

 the Ural chain, and thence through the whole of Siberia, even beyond the Lena, wherever 

 there are woods. Dr. L. von Schrenck says it is the commonest Owl in Amoor Land. Mid- 

 dendorff found it nesting in the Stanowoj Mountains ; doubtless it winters both there and 

 everywhere else in the Amoor country. About the end of October 1854, when snow had fallen, 



