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With regard to its habits and nidification in Scandinavia we give the following extract from 

 Mr. Wheelwright's notes on the ornithology of Lapland. This gentleman writes that " this 

 species was, next to the Hawk Owl, the commonest Owl in our forests ; but being much more 

 nocturnal in its habits than the Hawk Owl, it was not so often seen, — not that the light appears 

 much to affect its vision ; for here the summer nights are as light as day, and we rarely went into 



the forest on any night without seeing this pretty little Owl hawking after its prey This 



Owl has a much more southern range than the Hawk Owl ; for we not unfrequently take nests in 

 South Wermland ; but, strange to say, they are met with, like those of the Crossbills, only about 

 every third year. This Owl goes to nest early ; after the end of May you rarely find eggs. It 

 has been remarked that whenever this Owl has appeared in autumn in the very south of Sweden, 

 a severe winter has always followed. We found it to occupy in the Quickjock forest precisely 

 the same range as the Hawk Owl, and we never by any chance saw one on the fell-sides higher 

 than the fir-region. It is a bold, voracious little bird. One light night I shot a female in full 

 chase after Lemming on a frozen lake. In Wermland on one occasion, having caught an old 

 female on the eggs, I took her home in a small fishing-creel, and, casting in a Titmouse which I 

 had shot, found it nearly devoured when I arrived home. I had her for a long time in a cage ; 

 and a very pretty little pet she was, becoming very tame. The call-note was a very musical soft 

 whistle, which, however, I never heard except in the evening and night. I could never detect 

 the slightest difference in plumage between the male and female. Till I took the nest in Werm- 

 land no Swedish naturalist appeared to be aware of the fact of this little Owl breeding so far 

 south. We took our first nest at Quickjock on the 2nd of May, and our last on the 30th of 

 May. In Wermland we often take the nest in the end of April." 



A most important discovery has lately been made by our correspondent Mr. R. Collett, of 

 Christiania, with regard to the configuration of the skull of this species. Dr. Kaup drew 

 attention to the fact that the ear-orifices in the Owls of this genus are asymmetrical; but to 

 Mr. Collett belongs the credit of having discovered and pointed out that this extends also to the 

 skull. Mr. Collett has published a most exhaustive anatomical paper on the subject (P. Z. S. 

 1871, pp. 739-743), to which we refer our readers for further particulars. 



We are enabled by the liberality of the Council of the Zoological Society to make use of 

 the woodcuts used in illustrating Mr. Collett's paper, which we give below, and which will 

 enable our readers to see at a glance the peculiar configuration of the skull of this Owl. 



